


Beautiful, Beloved.

by ekwriting111



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Developing Relationship, Enemies, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Hogwarts, Humor, Pride and Prejudice References, Quidditch, Secret Crush, Secret Relationship, Top Harry Potter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 15:07:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 51,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29334273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ekwriting111/pseuds/ekwriting111
Summary: "𝓎𝑜𝓊'𝓇𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝒶𝓊𝓉𝒾𝒻𝓊𝓁.""𝓎𝑜𝓊'𝓇𝑒 𝓂𝓎 𝒷𝑒𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒𝒹."Eloise and Katie want nothing more than to escape their boring life in 2020, and when the world sends them a sign of how to get there, they take it.Shifting realities becomes so much more than they ever thought, and they encounter love, drama, adventure, and chaos.Eloise clicks with a certain tall ginger who helps her branch out and loosen up, while Katie connects with a quiet, hidden blonde who has just as much damage as she does.Troubles and problems ensue as the two go through an entirely new world that is just as familiar as it is unfamiliar.There was no way of knowing what they were getting themselves into when they started counting from 1 to 100.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Original Female Character(s), Fred Weasley II/Original Female Character(s), Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Lee Jordan/George Weasley
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This story follows two of my own OC's as they shift to Hogwarts, and while it is not based specifically off of any of my own personal shifting stories, I hope you enjoy and it gives you some motivation to go home.
> 
> This story may contain sensitive or triggering topics, if so there will be a warning before the chapter. Please be kind to yourself, and enjoy the story.

Seattle, Washington, October 7th, 2020.

Eloise Kelly sat out on the steps of her front porch, watching the rain pour down endlessly, under the safety of the awning. As she waited for the rain to slow long enough to run and grab the mail, she sat with her head in her phone, scrolling mindlessly on TikTok. Every now and then, she would huff slightly through her nose when she saw something funny, like a bad impersonation of John Mulaney. 

She had come across another video, noticing first one of her favorite movie clips, a scene from "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", where Fred and George Weasley pop up next to Harry Potter when he arrives at Grimmauld Place for the first time. She always loved something about Fred Weasley's character. 

About two weeks ago, she had seen a video or two about Draco Malfoy, and while she always thought he was a little cute during the third movie maybe, Ellie was just never able to get her mind past his whole, you know, being blood-racist thing. Slurs are not cool. 

But ever since then, she's noticed a lot more Harry Potter content on her for you page, which she's not mad about, it’s her kind of content.

Her best friend on the other hand, Katie Thompson, was head over heels for Draco.

Eloise and Katie met in 3rd grade, when they were running on the playground and rammed right into each other. They were stuck in the nurse's office together the rest of the day, and sat talking for three hours before their parents came to pick them up. When they did, the two girls refused to leave without a plan for a playdate. Since then, they have been practically inseparable.

Although there was one time in fourth grade when Katie forgot about Eloise’s birthday, and then got the silent treatment from her for 3 days. Eloise couldn’t stand not talking to her, so she forgave her when Katie showed up to her house with a batch of horribly made cupcakes asking for forgiveness. They threw out the nasty cupcakes and watched movies for hours after, and that was the longest the two have ever gone without talking since. 

Katie and Eloise had a tradition each year that during spring break, summer break, and christmas break they would have a sleepover and binge all 8 Harry Potter movies without stopping. Each year they got more and more intense, full of snacks, homemade butterbeer, and trivia games. They had plans for their sweet sixteen to go to Universal Studios for Harry Potter world, but it got cancelled and rescheduled for next year because of the pandemic. 

They were always comfortable and happy being each other's best friend, but when the time came for high school, they were not at all popular. They weren’t disliked or made fun of, but it became a lot more obvious that Katie and Eloise only had each other. There would be times where a cute guy would add one of them on snapchat, and there was a sliver of hope or excitement, but it usually ended in an unsolicited dick pic and another user added to the block list.

Ellie's mom, Maggie, made her read the books before she was allowed to watch any of the movies, and so she read them all in a 2 month period during third grade. One of the most fun childhood stories is that she got in huge trouble for making someone in her class cry because she spoiled "Half Blood Prince" by telling the girl, Megan, that Dumbledore died. Eloise came home that day sobbing because she just wanted someone to talk to about the books. 

Katie then took it upon herself to read all of the books in time for Christmas that year, because her mom didn’t give her an allowance, she decided that she was going to read them all as a ‘present’ to Eloise.

She always has had a soft spot for Harry Potter, and even got to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway last year before the pandemic. 

On her phone, she was captivated by the video with Fred and George. The clip was covered in text boxes, mentioning something called "shifting". Eloise read that shifting was "taking over Tik Tok, and that you can shift realities to anywhere you want, even Hogwarts". She felt intrigued for a second, and she saved the video, and sent it to Katie, but then doubt clouded her mind, and she put her phone down next to her on the porch step. 

Looking up for a moment, she realized it was her chance. Eloise ran as fast as she could across the soft and muddy lawn and slammed right into the mailbox, yanking it open and grabbing the mail as fast as possible. Spinning on her heels faster than her feet could take her, she whipped around and bolted right back to the porch.

WHAM!

Unbeknownst to Eloise, her little brother Mikey had decided today was the first day to finally close a door. So to Ellie, the door was supposed to be open, but when it met her face, she realized something was off.

Her head went back, and she flew right off the porch onto the ground. Struggling to get out of the rain, she stood up slowly and stumbled to the door, actually opening it this time.

"MIKEY! I SWEAR, AS SOON AS MOM GETS HOME YOU'RE GOING TO GET IT", Eloise screamed down to the basement where she knew her brother had run to play his video games and get away from her wrath. 

Stomping back to her room, the one place of peace in this house, she slammed the door and turned on her basic LED lights to blue, because it was that kind of day, making sure that her brother was far away. Looking back down at her phone, she went to Spotify and clicked on her usual "Coming of Age Teen Movie" playlist, and connected it to her Amazon Alexa. 

Fuming, she fell onto her bed as the beginning chords of "Canyon Moon" by Harry Styles started to play. 

Elle began thinking to herself, "God, I just wish for a moment life was different and I could escape. Even for one day. But no, I live in the most depressing city in the United States and I can't even get a boyfriend. This should be illegal."

As Eloise thought to herself, lying in bed, she drowned out her intrusive thoughts with Harry Styles, as one does. Rolling onto her stomach, she picked up her phone again, looking back to that TikTok about "shifting". It piqued her curiosity, since escapism has always been her go-to coping mechanism for life. Whether it be Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel, Percy Jackson, etc., Ellie always managed to create a world of her own in her head to distract from the chaos around her. 

But what if she could really escape? What if she could enter that world of her own?

*Tap tap tap*

Right on cue, Katie was knocking on the window of her room, like usual. Eloise shot up from her spot on the bed and went to unlock it. 

“Seriously? You never have this locked”, Katie scoffed as she hops through the window and jumped into her normal spot on the corner of Eloise’s bed. 

Eloise walked back over to her bed and flopped onto her back, “I know, my mom keeps coming in here and locking it because she thinks someone is going to break in or something.” Eloise grunted, still staring at the ceiling, “Did you see the video I sent you?”, trying to change the subject.

“Which one? The Draco Malfoy thirst trap or the one about shifting?”, Katie mumbled while propped against the pillows, scrolling on Instagram.

“The one about shifting. Have you heard about anything like that before?” Eloise finally sat up and spun around on the bed, sitting cross-legged to face Katie. 

“Uhhh… I feel like I’ve seen something about it before, but I’ve never really looked into it.” Katie continued, “Why? Seattle really getting that bad?”

Eloise, getting defensive, said, “No, no, I just mean… Well I can’t help but wonder if it’s possible, you know? Like what if you and I could just somehow get to the Harry Potter universe? You could be with Dracoooo.” Eloise finished in a singsong voice.

Katie sat straight up from her spot on the bed, suddenly interested, “Go on…”

Eloise began, “Well I’ve seen a couple of videos about it, and people talking about an app called Amino where they have more information. I saw someone mention ‘group shifting’ too. Maybe it’s possible.” Eloise stopped, looking up and seeing Katie hyperfocused on her phone again. “Seriously? What are you doing?” she scoffed, annoyed that she already stopped paying attention to her.

Katie flipped her phone around and held it up to show Eloise, “Relax. I just downloaded Amino for us to check this shit out. If there’s a possibilty I can get railed by Draco Malfoy, I’m gonna give it a shot.”

“Of course that’s what gets you interested in it.”, Eloise said, mid laugh.

“As if you weren’t thinking the same thing about Fred Weasley?” Katie added, making Eloise’s cheeks blush red.

The two girls looked at each other, trying to keep a straight face, but as soon as Katie faltered a tiny bit, the two girls broke down dying of laughter. Eloise literally fell over, and Katie had to reach out and grab her before she fell off of the bed from laughing.

~~~~

After hours of research, deep diving on Amino, Eloise and Katie had come up with a plan. They were going to script tomorrow, and devise a method to group shift together into the same desired reality. They just had to figure out the perfect method, and a good story that worked for them both.

This created some issues.

Eloise sat with her back on the floor, and her legs propped up against the wall, and Katie was slumped in the desk chair. A sound came from the front of the house, which both girls processed as Eloise’s mom finally getting home from work. They looked at each other, and jumped from their places in the room and ran out the door, headed for the living room.

“HI MOM!” Eloise yelled, mid-slide to the couch

“HI MAGGIE!”, Katie also yelled, crashing right into Eloise and landing onto the couch.

Without even looking up, Maggie said, “Hi hon, Hi Katie Kate. How was the day?”, she threw her purse onto the kitchen table, and started taking off her jacket, revealing her scrubs from work at the hospital, “Katie, are you sleeping over tonight? You’re welcome to, I was gonna make yours and Ellie’s favorite, spinach and artichoke dip to go with the chicken.”, she said, while hanging up her jacket.

Eloise and Katie squealed, giving her a resounding "YES!", before running back to the bedroom to make a plan.

Once the door was shut tight behind them, and they heard Maggie headed down to the basement to say hello to Mikey, Eloise looked at Katie with a smirk.

"We need to script everything after dinner and then we can try tonight.” 

Katie pointed a finger knowingly at Eloise, “No… remember? We will shift tonight. That’s what they all said, we can’t act like it won’t work. We have to have full confidence in ourselves and in it.” 

Eloise gave in, “Okay, okay, you’re right. All we have to do is trust the process and know it will work. I’ll get some water from the fridge so we stay hydrated for this. Did we have any homework for history?” 

Katie rolled her eyes, a classic move of hers, “No, thank god. Mr. Malone yelled at the class the entire period and didn’t have time to start anything on the google meet. I finished the pre calc homework already if you want the answers.”, she offered

“Yes please,” Eloise begged, putting on some puppy-dog eyes, “I hate math. I swear we need to get this to work so I can actually enjoy a class and not have math anymore.” 

Katie laughed, adding, “No more math class, just try not to die with Care of Magical Creatures at 9am and Defense against the Dark Arts at 11.” 

Eloise continued laughing, and forced out, “No! That’s much better than trying to understand pre calculus. I’d take that any day.” 

“I’d go through all of that all the time if it meant I got to be with Draco Malfoy.”, Katie said, bringing the conversation back from the laughs, “And I know you would too for Fred.” 

Eloise let out a little smile at the thought, and with that they heard Mrs. Kelly calling from the kitchen, “Eloise and Katie Kate! Food! Hurry before Mikey gets to it!”

With that, both girls bolted up from their spots on the bed and booked it to the kitchen. A waft of spinach-artichoke dip smacked them in the face, and they took their respective spots at the table. 

“Two classic shirley-temples? The usual?” Maggie said with her back facing the table, head stuck in the fridge.  
“Not tonight,” said Eloise, despite a longing look coming from Katie’s face, “We’ll just have water.” 

Still looking in the fridge, Maggie said, “Huh. Okay”, spinning back around, placing four glasses on the table, and going back to the stove to check on the chicken. 

“Is Dad still on that work trip in New York?” Eloise asked, looking towards her mom with a longing face.

“Sadly. I just got a call from him speaking of, and he’s gonna be stuck there for 2 more weeks to quarantine. So it’s just you, me, and Mikey for the time being.” Her mom said, with a solemn tone.

“And me! Most of the time.” Katie added, with a small giggle, puffing out her chest to seem proud. 

Mikey came crashing to the dinner table, taking his normal seat and slouching down, with his airpods blasting so loud that everyone could hear his god-awful rap screaming in his ears. 

“Mikey-man, can you please take the earpods out while we eat dinner?” Maggie requested, seeing a large eye-roll from the moody thirteen year old. Both girls continued laughing from the earlier conversation as everyone dug into dinner, and the food was as good as always. Eloise and Katie ate so much food, and by the time dinner was over, both girls had drank two and a half glasses of water. 

Maggie noticed, saying “I don’t think I’ve seen either of you drink this much water in- ever?” 

Eloise and Katie made quick eye contact, and Katie quickly said, “We thought we should at least try and be a little healthy every now and then.” 

They made some small eye contact, and looked at each other with a smirk. Finished with dinner, they cleaned up the table before heading back to Eloise’s room for the night. 

“Goodnight Mom!” Eloise said, smiling at her mother, “Thanks for dinner, it was really good.”

Katie continued, adding, “Yes! Thank you for dinner, it was great!”

Before Eloise’s mom could even get a full sentence out, the girls were already gone for the bedroom. Slamming the door behind them, Eloise was flat against the door and Katie jumped onto the bed and into her spot in the corner. 

“Ready to script?” Eloise looked at Katie, with the biggest grin on her face. 

Katie grinned right back, “You read my mind.”

~~~~

After hours of writing, erasing, rewriting, and perfecting a script to shift to Hogwarts, they had finally finished. A little grey notebook sat in between Eloise and Katie, who were sitting crossed-legged on the bed. 

Eloise looked up at Katie, down at the notebook, and back up to Katie, “Are you ready?”

Katie looked Eloise dead in the eyes, and said “Ready as I’ll ever be.” 

Looking back to the notebook, Eloise got visibility more tight and nervous, saying, “Lets just go over the script and the plan one more time.” 

Katie took a deep breath in efforts to calm Eloise down, and started, “Okay. We’re gonna be fraternal twins, so we’ve got a sisterly bond going.”

Eloise continued, “Yeah... We’re shifting to the golden trio’s third year, but to make it less illegal the ages are shifted up by a year. Our birthday is September 2nd, and we’re starting on September 1st, when we’re 14. The next day we turn 15, because we got held back a year because we hadn’t turned 12 in time for our letter.” 

Katie continued on, “Exactly, this way you’re only a year and a half younger than Fred, so you’re 15 and he’s 16.”

Eloise laughed, loosening up, “We’re transferring from Ilvermorny in the United States, and I’m a star quidditch chaser of the Wampus house. We were in Wampus, and we’ll get sorted into Gryffindor when we arrive.”

“We’ll both be placed in Gryffindor, and become friends with the golden trio right away. Fred will notice you of course, especially once he sees your broom and gets to know you.”, Katie nudged her shoulder, egging her on.

Eloise got a little spooked, but continued, “And Draco will be captivated by you right away. Conflicted of course because you’re a Gryffindor, but his emotions will be TOO strong,”, Eloise dramatically placed a hand over her heart, mimicking being shot but cupid’s arrow.

“Hey hey… Have you seen him? You swoon every time Mr Frederick shows up on screen, imagine what’s gonna happen when you see him for the first time.” Katie mentioned

Eloise jumped back to her train of thought, “Back to what we were saying. We’re purebloods, our parents look like Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. Because, well, why not.”

Both girls started crying laughing, because they absolutely adore them as a celebrity couple, and since it's their desired reality, they can make it whatever they want.

Continuing on Katie said, “Yes! We’re extremely talented wizards, we always know the answers when called on or taking tests, and we always know the right spells and wand movements.”

An idea struck Eloise, and she grabbed the notebook and a pen off her nightstand, throwing the pages open and beginning to write, “We forgot to write that we always have money!”, she continued writing, and said, “I’ll script that we both have a money pouch that always has the right amount for every situation.”

Katie nodded her head in agreement, saying, “Smart… So we’ve got that covered. I will not be playing quidditch, for obvious reasons regarding my lack of athletic skill, but you’ll be a star. Our parents are aurors, being transferred from the US ministry to the UK to cover the movement of Sirius Black, so we have a reason for the move. Our last name is Thompson, like mine now because Blake and Ryan Thompson sounds better than Blake and Ryan Kelly.”

Eloise nodded slowly, adding, “Yeah… fine- Anyways, we’ll wake up at King’s Cross Station on September 1st, the start of third year. Conveniently we’ll sit in the carriage on the train where the golden trio meets Professor Lupin, and then we’ll go from there.” 

Katie clapped her hands together in excitement, beaming over their accomplishment. The two had just spent three hours scripting their desired reality, and they had finally finished. It was just about 9:30 at night, so the two started getting ready for “bed”. 

~~~~

Around 10:30, the girls had gotten completely into their pajamas, and had drunk another full glass of water each. Eloise took off her makeup from the day, and Katie had put her hair up in a messy bun to get it out of her face when they tried to shift.

Grabbing her LED remote off the dresser, Eloise jumped into her queen sized bed which thankfully had enough room for both of them to be in a somewhat starfish position. They did a 10 minute meditation together to clear their minds and prepare. Placing their script under the pillow after rereading it together one last time, the two looked at each other with hope, and together said, “We will shift tonight. We have shifted. Shifting works, and we are master shifters.”

With that, they turned off the lights and laid down in a starfish position, holding hands on Eloise's right side and Katie’s left. They began to say the words “I am” over and over, outloud together, before they started feeling tingly and light. Then, they began to count. 

1...2…3….

~~~~

By 50, it felt like they were spinning, and both Eloise and Katie started seeing flashes of light. Unaware if the other felt the same, they continued on counting. The dizziness was getting intense by 65, and their entire view became different. Eloise’s body became light and more disconnected with her surroundings, as did Katie’s. The two were almost there, they just had to keep going a little farther to get there.

~~~~

98, Their entire surroundings were changing.

99, There were faint noises… something like a train whistle?

100…

Everything went white.


	2. The Arrival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n: welcome back! thank you for reading!! i can't wait for you to see what's in store for our girls... -stripes  
> quick note, when i started writing this book i began with first person pov, which i personally don't like very much, but at chapter 5 it goes to third person, and the writing gets much better. enjoy!

Eloise's POV

I felt super dizzy, and my entire view was white. The clothes on my body felt different, and suddenly my brain recognized the world around me. Instead of laying down, there was hard ground under my feet, and I could feel shoes as well. 

My head was physically spinning for sure, but my mind was spinning trying to comprehend everything. I couldn't process what was happening, or that things had actually changed around me. Did it really work? There's no way.... unless? 

I felt my hand in Katie's, just as we were, and I gave it a squeeze to see if this was real.

The hand squeezed mine right back.

I whipped my head around, throwing my eyes open to look at her. My eyes met hers, which were wide open in shock, but then our surrounding caught my attention more. My mouth dropped open, gaping while I spun around slowly, staring at the new scenery. All around us was exactly what we hoped. A cavernous station full of people, all with different and new faces, full of determination and purpose. Looking up, I realized we were standing right underneath the wall sign for platform 9, and I quickly peered around the corner and saw the sign for platform 10.

Jolted from my observations, Katie poked me and said, "Look! Our trolleys are right here!", pointing to the two carts standing next to us, one with a rather old looking trunk, painted with the initials K.T. There was a small cage with a brown tawny old on the very top, and a brown satchel-style backpack on top of the trunk. 

Another trolley sat next to it, with another old looking trunk that had the initials E.T. on it, presumably mine, and had a small, miniature snow owl in a cage on top of the trolley. Sat on top of the trunk was a similar looking knapsack bag, and alongside the trolley was standing a Firebolt broomstick, which reminded me that I'm a star quidditch player from America. I slowly walked over to my trolley, placing my hands on the back. I lifted them up slightly when I realized how cold the metal was, but adjusted and glanced up towards Katie. 

She was beaming right back at me, and said, "Come on! We have to go find Lupin and sit with him before the trio gets there!". She turned away, headed towards the wall while gripping her trolley tightly. Without enough time to even process what was happening, I watched her run full speed at the barrier and disappear right before my eyes. 

Taking a deep breath, I took a small step with my trolley. Gaining a bit more confidence, I walked back to give myself some running space, and without thinking any more, I ran with my eyes closed right at the barrier.

I felt almost a 'whoosh' around me, and opening my eyes slowly I saw the most amazing sight before my eyes. There sat the glorious Hogwarts Express, and the platform filled with wizards in pointy hats and hundreds of children with trunks and trolleys. I saw more owls in front of me on the platform than I had ever seen before in my life.

Up ahead, Katie turned around holding her trolley and motioned her hand for me to hurry up. I was stuck in place, dumbfounded by the environment. It was as if every worry I had ever had from my life in Seattle melted away. I was really home. 

Awakened from my daydreams, I saw a most mesmerizing sight up ahead. A set of flaming red heads, towering above the crowd around them. I began walking towards Katie, to try and find the carriage Lupin was in, when one of the redheads turned around.

I recognized Fred when his face turned and I saw his nose, since one of them has a more bumpy nose and the other's is straight. His eyes met mine and it was almost as if I saw a glint pass through them, before his brother yanked his arm in the other direction to board the train. I continued forwards towards Katie, coming up alongside her.

In a panicked tone, she said, "We have to hurry. Did you see anyone we "know" yet?", she said while doing air quotes with her fingers. 

"I saw the Weasleys, but they were a lot farther ahead. We should just worry about getting on the train right now. We have to sit down in Lupin's compartment so the trio comes to sit with us." I said, but my mind was elsewhere

I couldn't stop thinking about how insane it was that we were really here. All that I had ever had doubt about was gone, because I was on Platform 9 3/4, and I was about to be getting on the train to go home. My real home. 

Katie jumped a little, saying, "No way!! I bet Fred was looking cuteee?", she finished in a singsong voice.

I gave a little laugh, but continued forward towards the train. Someone helped us get our bags on the train, and we hoisted ourselves up into the compartment. I grabbed the cold metal bar alongside the door to climb on the train, and stepped in. I spun around for a moment, taking one last look at the platform before I was grabbed by the wrist and yanked on the train. 

In a hushed tone, Katie pulled me in, saying, "We have to find him. Now." 

I nodded in agreement, and we walked through the train compartment looking in each one. As we moved, I realized that we were getting stared at by all the students.

Leaning into Katie, I said, "Uh... Why are people staring at us?" looking towards her to see she was just as confused as I was.

"I have no clue.", She said with a flat tone, "Probably because we're new?"

"Let's hope that's why... but the attention is kind of a vibe." I added, with a smirk .

With a little shove on my right shoulder from Katie, I pushed forward through the train. We looked in every single one, until we reached the middle and peered into a seemingly-empty one. I opened the door, and saw that just as we'd hoped, there was a body sitting hidden underneath a coat, asleep in the right corner of the compartment. 

"Fuck yeah", said Katie, turning to me to give a high five.

I quickly stepped into the compartment and sat down against the wall across from the 'unknown man' who we knew to be Professor Lupin. Katie sat down next to him and across from me, and we waited.

Only a few minutes passed before the a certain bushy-haired girl with buck teeth walked into the compartment. "Mind if we join you? All the others are full.", she said with a smile.

"Of course!" I managed to squeak out, absolutely mind-blown that they were standing in front of me. The shock factor still hadn't worn off. I was really sitting with my best friend inside of the Hogwarts Express with Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and Remus Lupin. 

Ron pushed past Hermione to sit next to Katie, and Hermione sat next to me. Harry walked a lot more carefully and sat closest to the exit on my side, when Ron began, "Who do you think that is?", beckoning to Professor Lupin. 

"Oh, that's Prof-", Katie began, making my eyes go wide, and I jumped in to cut her off.

"We don't know. He was here when we got here. We're new here." I finished, turning to glare at Katie for a split second. Her eyes lowered and she gave a slight nod, making a mental note that we have to pretend as if we don't know what's going to happen. I have to make sure that no one suspects us or anything, because here they'd assume we work for moldy voldy or we're death eaters. Which to say the least would not be good. 

Hermione looked up, saying "Professor RJ Lupin."

Ron questioned, saying, "Do you know everything? How is it you know everything?"

Hermione looked back to him, saying with a slight annoyance in her voice, "It's on his suitcase Ronald."

Ron muttered, defeated, "Oh."

I saw Hermione look at me from the corner of my eye, and I looked towards her. It was like she was trying to pick apart a puzzle, from my outfit, the way my hair is sitting, to the freckles on my cheeks. 

"So where are you guys transferring from?" Ron interrupted, making Hermione jump a little.

"Ilvermorny, in the United States." I said, adding, "We're starting third year."

"We are too! I hope you guys are in Gryffindor. Do either of you play quidditch?", Harry asked, with hope.

"I most certainly do not, but Eloise does! She was the star chaser of the Wampus house back at Ilvermorny. Everyone in our house was placing bets on how soon she'd go pro." Katie said, winking at me. 

"Wicked. Oliver will be so excited. You have to be sorted into Gryffindor now. We can't let any of the other houses get you on their team." Ron said, with a passionate voice.

I giggled a little at his excitement, and felt the butterflies of nerves come back in my stomach. I still can't believe that this is really happening. I cannot wait to get sorted into Gryffindor and play quidditch for the first time, and have my first classes. I can't wait to do magic!!

Thinking of magic, my wand! I reached into my back pocket suddenly, without even thinking, and felt it sitting there, as if it always has been. Yanking it out, I was breathless at the sight of it. The wand is redwood, 12 1/4 inches with rigid flexibility. The hilt has a sort of grip on it, and the details are all a dark oak wood. There were little engraved stars and moons going up to the tip, and it was decorated with ridges and accents. Holding it in my hand, I felt a sort of power coursing through me, and as if the wand became a part of me when it was in my hand. 

Harry looked at me weird, "It's as if you've never held your wand before." He laughed, and Katie joined in to make it less suspicious, but glared at me from her seat. 

I covered myself, saying, "Oh no, I just thought I forgot it this morning. Quite a relief it was in my pocket."

Everyone laughed, but and the entire group became engaged in a lively conversation about Ilvermorny and Hogwarts. Hermione kept asking question after question, which I surprisingly knew all the answers to. What house we were in, the traits of each house, where we used to live, and more. Ron kept asking about quidditch, and Hermione was trying to understand my accent. Katie was deep into a conversation with Harry about the differences between the houses, which I knew she was doing to try and talk about Slytherin, specifically Draco.

Katie and I have always been two peas in a pod, because we're so similar but different. Our personalities fit together like a puzzle. I'm athletically talented, funny, and sweet. She's a little tougher, but insanely smart. We heightened these traits in our script, so she's like a Hermione 2.0 and I'm just as good a quidditch player as the pros. I just can't stop imagining what it will be like to play, and pull pranks with the twins, and be able to walk through the doors of the Great Hall. 

My day dreaming was interrupted when Harry said, "Do you think he's really asleep?"

"Seems to be. Why?", Hermione said, ending with a curious tone.

Harry leaned forward, his elbows to his knees, and faced us, "I gotta tell you something."

About 20 minutes later, Harry had informed us that Sirius Black was out to get him. Every bone in my body was tense, and it was like my mind was screaming to get out. I just wanted to tell them everything. That they shouldn't be scared of him, that the stupid rat is Peter, that Remus was Harry's dad's best friend, and a werewolf. I was internally screaming the entire conversation, and by the looks of Katie's posture, she was too. 

My internal conflict was soon interrupted when a cold chill came over the cabin. I whipped my head from my conversation with the trio to look at Katie, who was staring directly at me with wide eyes. She mouthed, "Shit." Before turning back to stare out the window, where a thick fog clouded the glass. 

We both were so caught up in the moment and talking about school that we completely forgot about the Dementor attack that was incoming. Just on schedule, there was fog all around us. I saw Harry go stiff and rigid, like he was having a seizure. I wanted to do something, but I was struck by fear. I didn't think all of this was going to be so real. It was like all the happiness was sucked from the compartment, and my heart was empty. I felt empty. 

Professor Lupin jumped up, casting the Patronus charm at the Dementor and grabbing Harry. All of us, Hermione, Ron, Katie, and I sat there in shock and confusion. Katie was still as wide-eyed as before, and looked at me with a knowing, but shocked look on her face. We all were sitting, stuck in our seats, glancing around at each other trying to understand what happened. Hermione was the first to speak, saying "What in the name of Merlin was that?"

Professor Lupin answered quickly, "A Dementor. Nasty things, for sure. But what I don't know is why they're on the train. If I were to guess I'd say it's for mass murderer Sirius Black-"

Katie flinched a little at the title that came before his name, obviously struggling more than me to keep the secret. I'm sure it'll be something to worry about later on. 

Hermione piped up, "Aren't Dementors under the control of the Ministry? They wouldn't be here unless the Ministry told them to be." 

Lupin continued, "They were most likely checking to make sure Sirius Black wasn't on the train. But why they attacked Harry, that I cannot answer as easily." 

Ron looked petrified in his chair, and Katie awkwardly placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, saying "You good?"

He turned to face Katie just slightly, and whimpered out a, "Not really." before looking back towards the ground. 

Hermione tried to lighten the mood and change the subject, saying, "Eloise, Katie, why don't you come with me and we can get changed into our robes. I'm sure you two will be sorted ahead of the first years, so we need to be ready. I reckon we'll be arriving soon." 

I glanced quickly towards Kat, and she nodded and stood up. Hermione exited first, then Katie, and I turned and shrugged to Professor Lupin before leaving and closing the door behind me. 

Walking along the hallway, it was quite cramped. You could fit about two people across if one person was either very small, otherwise you'd have to turn sideways to pass someone. Walking towards the restroom, my uniform in hand, I caught a glimpse up ahead. I saw the two tall flaming redheads from earlier, and my heart skipped a beat. Making sure my face wasn't too red with a quick glance in the glass next to me of a compartment, I continued following Hermione. 

"Hi Fred, Hi George." She said quickly, and quite dismissively. 

"Well, well, well. Come on Granger." Fred started, winking at me and looking me up and down before a quick look at Katie 

"You can't just whip past us and not introduce us to your new friends." George finished, glancing towards Katie and then to me 

"Oh, right sorry. This is Eloise and Katie Thompson, they've transferred to Hogwarts from Ilvermorny in America. You boys will be happy to learn that Eloise here is a chaser. And from the sounds of it a quite talented one at that." Hermione boasted, quickly introducing us before going right past them to the restrooms to change. 

Katie turned her head back to look at me slightly with a smirk painted across her face, and walked with Hermione quickly to change, leaving me in the hallway with the twins.

George looked at me and said, "Bloody brilliant you play quidditch, you better get sorted into Gryffindor so you're on our team." I noticed Fred looking a little too intently at me while George spoke, and I subtly made eye contact with him before looking back to George who was still going. "Oliver would be over the moon to have another talented player on the team."

"I wouldn't mind you getting sorted into our house." Fred said with a sly tone, and winked at me before walking in the opposite direction to what I assume is his compartment. 

I felt my cheeks get warm, and straightened myself out before going to change. I seriously just had a conversation with George and Fred Weasley. My heart was happy.

I continued towards the changing rooms, where I found Hermione and Katie. We gossiped and spoke while getting ready, and life was good. I was so ready for anything and everything that Hogwarts had to hold for us. And it was only day 1. We weren't even at school yet.

***


	3. The Sorting

Katie's POV

Stepping off of the train and into the self-pulling carriages was one thing, but stepping into Hogwarts for the first time was a whole other feeling. I was mind-boggled over the scenery. Walking in, I was so small and yet so large. The endless carved walls of the Great Hall, with the enchanted candles making the ceiling look like the night sky, the paintings filling the walls of the castle with life even when empty, the ghosts floating about wrecking havoc on all those around. 

I was packed into a group with all the other third years, we were shuffling into the Great Hall to be seated at the house tables. Everyone around me and Eloise found their seats, and before we knew it, we were standing all alone in the middle of the room because we hadn't been sorted to be able to sit down. 

I got nudged in the side by Eloise, who leaned over to me and whispered, "What are we supposed to be doing right now?" 

"I have no clue." I whispered back bluntly, while whipping my head all around the room looking at everyone and everything. All eyes were on us as the first years hadn't entered the hall yet for sorting. We stuck out like sore thumbs. 

A booming voice broke the silence, "WELCOME BACK." I whipped my head to the front of the hall to see Dumbledore standing in behind his pedestal. "If I could have your attention. We have two transfer students this year, who must be sorted into their houses first." Dumbledore motioned to Eloise and I standing in the middle. Professor McGonagall was holding the sorting hat, with a short stool next to her. 

She gestured to Eloise first, and she stepped up and sat onto the stool. The hat sat on her head and began, "Ahh... An American? This is new... certainly new. A talented athlete for sure, and a bright mind. Not as bright in academics-," Giggles were heard around the room, and I saw Eloise's face burn red. She was always the street smart and I was the book smart, but I didn't think the sorting hat would actually say that. It continued, "A kind heart, you'd do well in Hufflepuff. But there's more here... something deep down, a want for adventure. Bravery, but a need to be pulled out of your shell... I know exactly where that can happen, better be, GRYFFINDOR!" 

The hall exploded, and I quickly turned to see a sea of red robes jumping up and down, cheering as Eloise made her way over to the table. I made notice as well of a particular redhead screaming extra-loud and beaming at her as she skipped over to their table. I watched as she walked over and was grabbed into a giant bear hug by Oliver Wood. He looked more ecstatic than anyone, because Ron and Harry were already bragging on and on about her quidditch skills. If anyone was certain of anything, it was that Oliver Wood's reason for living was quidditch. Especially winning at quidditch. 

Seeing the sheer happiness and joy on Eloise's face could've made me cry, but I was yanked from the feeling when I heard a voice behind me say, "Katie Thompson!". I spun around on my heels and saw Professor McGonagall beckoning me towards the stool, holding the hat in her hand. I walked forwards and turned to sit facing everyone, and saw McGonagall lowering the hat onto my head out of the corner of my eye. As it was placed completely, it felt as if the hat was nestling onto my head. It began, "Ah... sisters. Twins in fact? But very different. You fit together well, almost like a puzzle. Similarly bright, but much more academically inclined. Athletics is out of the question, unlike her. There's a fire inside you. Stubborn, but kind hearted. You'd do quite fine in Ravenclaw or Slytherin... you've got some spunk." 

As the hat droned on, exposing all of my personality to the hall, I took the time to look around. I spotted a few Ravenclaws already with their heads in books, studying for the year already. I noticed Luna Lovegood with her funky glasses on, staring up at the ceiling, probably at Nargles or another strange creature. Eloise was beet red, sitting between Fred Weasley who seemed as though he just wanted to talk to her, and Oliver Wood who was interrogating her. She looked happy though. Overwhelmed, definitely, but happy. Moving my eyes throughout the room, I passed the Hufflepuff table, full of students talking to one another about their summers, and all smiling happily, excited to be back home with their friends. Finally, my eyes landed on the Slytherin table, exactly where I wanted them to be. I locked eyes with a special blonde boy, who looked extremely bored and unhappy to be there. As soon as our eyes met, I swear I saw a pull at his smile, just a small smirk. He wasn't looking away, and neither was I, until suddenly, the hat finished, saying, "Fine, fine. Better be, GRYFFINDOR!" I was jolted awake, and looked back at the boy, whose face now wore a façade of disgust, turned back to his friends.

The Gryffindor table was up on their feet, screaming and cheering for me as I stood and walked over, and I was tackled by Eloise, as if she didn't know if I was going to be sorted with her. 

"AH!! I'm so excited!" Eloise nudged my side as I sat down next to her, in between her and Oliver Wood. In a softer tone, so only I could hear, she whispered, "You were a hat stall... weird. For a second, I was worried it was going to put you somewhere else." 

I looked at her, shook my head, and turned towards the table to everyone else. "So! I feel like we need to be filled in on all the happenings at Hogwarts." 

Harry, Ron, and Hermione began on explaining their adventures for the past two years, and while Eloise and I did technically know all of this already, we didn't care one bit. We acted just as surprised and shocked as anyone, partially because it was coming from the Golden Trio themselves. 

Fred and George were talking at a million miles an hour, about quidditch, their plans for the year, and all the ways they were going to get Peeves back for ruining one of their big pranks last year.

As if a lightbulb lit up over George's head, he looked at me and went, "Uh, I just realized a small issue. We already have a Katie in Gryffindor, Katie Bell. Mind if we call you Kat?" He looked almost sad for me, but I couldn't care less. I was simply happy to be here. 

"Of course! Kat sounds great." I smiled at George, which seemed to ease his worries. 

I caught Eloise and Fred just staring at each other, before she went to grab a roll off the table in front of her, but then she knocked into his hand as he reached for the same one. They both turned beet red and didn't say a word, and then she reached out and handed him the roll. He smiled at her, and the two began talking about anything and everything. I wasn't paying too much attention to their conversation, but I caught a tiny bit:

"Did you ever play any pranks on people back at Ilvermorny?"

"Uh.. Yes! I was a huge prankster back there. I hear you and George are the in house pranksters? Mind if I join the fun sometimes?" Eloise said, hopefully.

"YES!- uh... I mean, sure. I'll run it past George." Fred recovered from his eagerness, not wanting to seem too excited. Suddenly I saw a different Fred, not the cocky one from the train earlier winking and flirting up a storm, but instead a kind, and sweet Fred who was absolutely smitten over my best friend. He looked just as nervous as her, but the more they talked, the more it started to seem like second nature from them. I felt badly listening in, so I grabbed some of the endless amount of food in front of me and piled it onto my plate.

It was good to see that Eloise was adjusting so well and already getting along with Fred, but I had yet to talk to Draco. On that note, I looked past Lee Jordan, who was sitting next to George and Ron, and locked eyes with the blonde boy once again. But this time, I could tell there was a conflict going on inside his head. He seemed to be fighting the urge to stare right back, but couldn't stop. He looked down at my robes with disgust, but once his eyes met mine again, they softened. I decided to speak up to my friends, playing dumb, "Hey you guys... Who's that blonde kid in the green over there? He's kind of hot... and he won't stop staring at me." 

It was as if I had killed the family dog. The whole table that had previously been full of chatter quieted down immediately, and no one spoke. I felt as though all eyes on me, and the stares were blank. I knew I struck a nerve, obviously, but I didn't think they'd react like this.

"Uhm... That's Draco Malfoy." Oliver said, quietly, for fear of everyone's reactions around.

Suddenly, the table exploded with emotion. Specifically, anger. People were talking over each other, and all fighting to explain the issues with my comment. There was a "He's blood racist" and "His FATHER was the reason I almost died last year." from Ginny, and a "He is a horrible person", and "His whole family is full of Death Eaters.", "He'll be a Death Eater before we take our O.W.L's!" Hermione chimed in. 

My whole face was red from embarrassment for even asking, but I still found my eyes wandering to the Slytherin table. Now, there sat a boy with a small smirk. The Gryffindor table was not very quiet with their reaction, and it was pretty obvious what had happened. I spoke up, "Okay, okay. Forget I asked!" and everyone slowly went back to their conversations. 

The rest of dinner went much smoother than the start, where the first years were sorted, and Professor Lupin was introduced. He smiled at my friends who were all in the compartment on the train, and then we went about our dinner. 

Constantly, I took a small glance at the Slytherin table to notice Draco and try and catch him staring. I tried talking to Eloise every now and then, but she too was deep in conversation with Fred. 

"Wait, so you mean to tell me you've NEVER listened to Queen?" Eloise said with her mouth hanging open.

Fred looked extremely confused, and turned to Hermione for support, knowing she was muggle-born, but all she said was "I forgot all my CDs back at home, plus these boys never give any muggle music the time of day. Their dad will though! He loves muggle stuff." With a shrug of her shoulders, she reconvened her conversation with Harry about the Dementor attack. 

Eloise was still interrogating Fred about his lack of music education, and I heard something about a promise that she was going to force him to listen to all her recommendations. I watched him pretend to be upset, but he didn't hide his little smile that he was just happy she wanted to spend as much time with him as he wanted to with her. 

Before long, Dumbledore told all the Prefects to lead their houses back to the dorms, and we all exited the Great Hall. On my way out, I was talking to Ron about the classes and he slowly walked away and directed me to Hermione. She eagerly started telling me all about the courses she was taking this year, but I was interrupted when I got knocked into. Someone came up behind me and rammed their shoulder into mine as they sped past. I straightened myself out before looking up to see who it was, and when I did, I saw Draco, with his head over his shoulder, saying, "Watch it American." With a sharp tone, before continuing to the dungeons and laughing with Crabbe and Goyle. I couldn't help but notice how he looked at me. 

And apparently, neither could Hermione, "That was- weird. He's usually mean, yeah, but he definitely doesn't look like he's sorry while he does it."

I was annoyed, but found myself smiling a little, before continuing on to the dorms with the rest of the Gryffindors. When we got to the portrait, we were told the password and let in. My eyes were wide as we walked in, and it was more warm and comforting than I could have ever imagined. I looked over to Eloise and saw her smiling just as wide, and we ran towards one another and united in a big hug. 

"I'm just so happy to be here." She whispered in my ear.

"Me too." I said back, smiling over her shoulder, looking around at the room while embraced in her arms.

Hermione led us up to the dorm, where we were rooming with her and Lavender. This should be fun during sixth year, but that's far from now. I flopped onto my bed, noticing our trunks and all of our belongings were sitting next to our bed already. I opened my trunk and noticed all of my dream clothes, and it seemed to be endless. Trying something out, I reached in and thought of my pajamas. Much to my surprise, when I pulled my hand out, they were there! 

After I got changed, we all sat on the foot of our beds, simply talking about everything we were excited for. Soon enough, we tired ourselves out from the long first day, and the lights were out, and it was time for bed. Tomorrow starts classes, and that meant there was so much more in store to come. 

I just couldn't get that blonde boy out of my head.


	4. First Day

Eloise’s POV

Waking up in the dorm was a really strange feeling. I thought it would be perfect, but then Hermione started yelling. And yelling loud. I rolled over in the bed trying to ignore her, but then the room got really bright, and I was stopped from going back to sleep. Picking my head up a tiny bit from under the covers, I saw Hermione, already in her uniform, and Lavender's bed empty. I flopped back, in awe that I was really here, but still tired. I guess my pattern of sleeping in and being impossible in the morning hasn't changed from my original reality to this one.

A pillow smacked me right in the face, and I jolted straight up in the bed to see a guilty-faced Kat staring me down. "Time to get up! First day!" She laughed, and walked towards her bed and began putting different books into her backpack. Rubbing my eyes, and groaning in annoyance, I swung my legs over the side of my bed and stood up.

Hermione was hurrying around the room and when she had all her books ready in her bag, she looked at me and Kat and said, "So, you two can manage your way to breakfast right? I've got to get to the library and start doing some work."

I blankly stared at her, since most of what she said didn't even get processed in my head since I had just woke up. Kat nodded at her and said, "I deal with this morning mess all the time. We'll be down in ten to fifteen minutes. No worries." She motioned towards me, and shrugged her shoulders when Hermione looked nervous for my disheveled appearance.

"That is what magic is for right?" I commented, with my back to the two of them, trying to get the different parts of my uniform together. I slipped on my skirt and shirt, and then my shoes. I dug in my trunk and pulled out a pile of different textbooks, and threw them into my bag along with some quills and ink. I grabbed my robe off the end of my bed, and started to head out the room, until I heard a cough from behind me.

"Maybe take a look at your hair first?" Kat laughed, and when I spun to the mirror I realized I forgot to do it. With a quick brush, it laid good enough for me on my shoulders, and I walked out of the dorm and headed down the stairs to the common room.

I heard another shout from Kat behind me, and when she caught up to me she threw a tie around my neck. "Stupid. We need to wear our ties too." I noticed hers was tied perfectly, but before I could ask her to do mine, she was off the stairs and talking in the common room. As I descended down, and landed in the warm, welcoming common room, I noticed it was seemingly empty. Most of the Gryffindors had already gone out to breakfast, and then my eyes met two tall gingers talking to Katie. They towered over her, bending their necks slightly to talk to her, and I started towards the three, causing Fred and George to look up.

"Morning lazy. Ready for your-" Fred began, before getting cut off.

"First dazzling day at Hogwarts?" George finished with a coy smile, before laughing slightly. Fred looked at him, and then back to me. Almost as if he was fixated on my eyes, and studying the new girl before him, taking in all of my appearance. Both Katie and George took notice of our sudden silent eye contact, which caused her to make a move.

Katie whipped around fast to look at me, and slightly widened her eyes, as if she had an idea, before turning back towards George and grabbing his wrist, dragging him towards the portrait hole.

"Wait- Kat- I usually walk with Freddie to breakfas-", he managed to get out before she shushed him, pulling him along and their hushed voices became farther and farther away as the portrait hole swung open and closed, and the two headed for breakfast. Leaving me and Fred, awkwardly standing in the common room.

Fred finally broke the silence, saying, "Uh, do you know how to tie your tie?" He looked down at the maroon and gold cloth, flung around my neck messily.

"Is it that obvious?" I muttered, looking up to him. I noticed how much more handsome he was when he is actually standing in front of me, his hair sat perfectly on his head, not too long like it will be next year, but not as short from the first year. The flaming red hue was bright and striking, fitting perfectly with the messy but suitable mop on his head. He seemed so much taller than in the movies. I had no real concept of how tall 6'3 was compared to me is, but holy shit does he tower over me. I'm not mad about it, but it is certainly something to get adjusted to.

Fred stepped towards me, and slowly reached out and grabbed my tie, "Mind if I fix it for you? McGonagall is super strict about the dress code for the first few weeks, before she starts to loosen up." He said knowingly, and I nodded, and placed my bag on the ground, meanwhile the butterflies in my stomach were answering much faster. I felt a spark inside of me, just from being this close to him. I trusted my gut though, and knew I had to keep my cool. I looked in his eyes for a moment, and then back down to surveying the rest of his body. His muscles were concealed by his sweater, but the quidditch beater in him still showed through slightly, where the fabric pulled tight when his arms moved. He had one hand on either side of the fabric, and tied it perfectly 

"All set." He finished off the tie, tightening it to be snug but comfortable around my neck.

Laughing a bit, before grabbing my bag and heading towards the door, I said, "You're gonna need to teach me how to do that."

He winked at me, and coolly said, "Maybe I'll just have to do it for you every morning."

I let out a small laugh, and I could feel my cheeks filling with blush as I adjusted my bag on my shoulder, and nodded towards the door to head to breakfast. He grabbed his books as well off the table, and followed suit. 

We headed out of the portrait hole together, and walked to the Great Hall. Just like yesterday, we were clicking fast. It took a few awkward moments for us to get in the swing, but mostly because I was just so nervous. There was something about him that made me so comfortable, like I've known him my whole life. His energy, the way he laughed, it was something I just knew I could trust. 

Passing by the portraits on our way to breakfast, Fred looking down at me and said, "You know, I was really worried you wouldn't get sorted into Gryffindor.", with his hands shyly in his pockets.

Another feeling of heat flooded to my face, and I smiled a little before looking up at him while we walked. "Why's that?", I questioned, eager to know the answer.

He looked off for a second, like he didn't have the right words or wasn't sure if he wanted to say what he thought. "Well, I just- I mean Oliver Wood would've gone crazy had another house gained such a good and established player during his last year." He recovered, but it definitely seemed like he wanted to say something else.

I was a little disappointed, because I thought he was going to say something about me, "Oh, yeah of course. He seems like he really loves quidditch." I stuck my hands in the pocket of my robes, and looked away towards the portraits having avid conversations on the walls next to me.

After a few moments of silence, walking, Fred said quietly, "I also thought you were quite cool." He said as he pushed his hands down deeper into his pockets, and slowly looked back towards me on his left.

Another wave of blush rushed to my cheeks, but I pushed it away and smartly responded, "Oh really? Not just for Oliver's sake?" I noticed how red he was, and it was not just his hair. I smiled at him, and he gave an awkward laugh before continuing on. 

After a few more minutes of talking and Fred attempting to tell me where everything is in the castle, and one strange conversation about music later, we walked into the Great Hall, laughing at the idea of Dumbledore listening to muggle music, when I looked up and realized the whole Gryffindor table was staring at us. 

"What's their deal?" I looked at Fred, questioning, before heading towards Kat, who was waving like a maniac at me from her seat next to Hermione. 

"Dunno. Weird group if I do say so myself." Fred shrugged and laughed it off. Everyone seemed to go back to what they were doing, which was an assortment of things. Ron was stuffing his face full of eggs and toast, and Hermione was angrily telling him to try not to get his food on her school books, which were splayed across the table everywhere. Kat was stuck trying to eat her breakfast amongst the sea of books. George was trying to convince a very unamused Oliver to let him off of helping with try outs, and Lee was busy trying to get in on the strategy for the year. Harry seemed to be poking and prodding at his food, staring off into blank space as Colin Creevy, a second year, was trying to ask him about his classes for the year. I walked towards Kat, and sat down next to her, and Fred sat down across from me and next to the busy George. 

Oliver swatted at George, ignoring his pleas, and brought his attention to the newest person at the table, me. He leaned forward and began, "So, Eloise. I obviously need to see you play first before I put you into our strategy for the year, but we're going to be training harder and more often than ever before. My last year here is going to end with us holding the Quidditch cup, and I'm certain of it." Fred and George snickered at his enthusiasm, and especially at my wide eyed and intimidated expression. 

"Oh yeah, of course," Fred began, sarcastically with a smirk plastered on his face.

"Anything you say Captain." George finished, elbowing Oliver, who now wore a face of aggravation from the twins mocking. 

I laughed it off, before turning to Kat to see her with a wide smile. "What's up?" I said, placing my bookbag on the floor and putting some eggs on my plate, glancing back and forth between the food in front of me and Kat's mischievous smile. 

"Oh nothing... just wanted to know how your alone time with Fred went this morning? Seems like my plot worked out because your tie is tied and you walked in smiling wide with Mr. Weasley." She said, low enough that only I could hear, but I still knocked her shoulder and shushed her, embarrassed. 

"Be quiet! I don't want anyone else to hear." I whispered back, and Kat went back to eating her food and staring off into space. 

Or so I thought.

A few minutes later, Ginny joined us at the table and whacked Kat over the head with a rolled up copy of the daily prophet, saying, "Oi! Eyes off the blood purist!" And I realized that Kat had been fixated on the Slytherin table all morning. She sat directly in line with Draco, who was also staring at her with a smug look on his face. Kat woke up from her trance, finally, and began violently shaking her head in denial. 

She began, quickly in defense, "No, no, I was just- zoning out-."

Luckily, Kat was cut off by Professor McGonagall, who began walking around the Gryffindor table with all of our timetables for the year. Kat and I had the same schedule, as well as most of the Gryffindors since we hadn't been there to choose our classes for this year. Hermione was the only one with a different schedule, since she had taken on a lot more courses. She got called into McGonagall's office, most likely to be given the time turner, but I'm not supposed to know that. 

Harry and Ron were full of excitement and aggravation, while one was excited for the new DADA (Defense against the Dark Arts) teacher, the other was only focused on how they have potions with Snape early in the morning. The entire table had exploded in conversation with people sharing and comparing schedules, and trying to see what classes they had together. 

I was studying mine and Kat timetable to see that we had all our classes together when I heard and "Ahem...", from in front of me. I looked up to see Fred, with an expectant look on his face. "May I see your schedule, madam?" He said, with a proper and posh tone.

"Why of course, kind sir." I copied, mocking his fancy accent, and handed him my schedule, "But one would presume it unnecessary due to the affect of us being in different years?" 

My comment was ignored, and he held both papers side by side and examined them extensively, when suddenly his face lit up and he glanced back up at me, saying, "We have the same off periods on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and every other Friday." With a cheeky smile on his face, he handed back my schedule, and I grinned back.

"Sounds like a perfect time for planning and executing pranks." George chimed in, earning a whack over the head from Oliver.

"Are you kidding me? I cannot have you two idiots stuck in detention every single day when I'm trying to plan the perfect year for Quidditch." He said, scolding the twins. 

George looked to Fred, with a knowing face, and began, "Well that's easy Oli, mate,-"

"We just don't get caught!" Fred finished, earning a high five from his brother.

Kat and I burst into a fit of laughter at Oliver's disappointed face, and I could tell that this was a usual occurrence for the seventh year. I looked around the different tables, and noticed Snape handing out the Slytherin's schedules, when I also noticed Kat looking at me expectantly.

"What's your deal?" I asked, seeing that her face was lit up with excitement.

With words spilling out faster than I ever believed possible, she said, "We have Care of Magical Creatures today with Slytherin Eloise- I'm so excited you have no idea that means I get to see Draco stroke the book that man is so attractive- I love that scene holy shit I'm not going to be able to control myself- I'm in love with that toxic man." She was panting by the time she finished her rant, and I just stared at her blankly.

"I- all this for him stroking a book?" I judged her a little, but I also saw how excited she was. 

"ELOISE ITS THE RINGS." She yelped, a little louder than I think she even expected to, because our friends around us suddenly turned in our direction, confused as all hell. I glanced over to the Slytherin table, where a certain blonde boy had a face of confusion, but also a smirk.

I combusted into tears laughing at her obsession, and soon enough I had finished my breakfast and I was beginning to pack up my bag to head towards my first classes of the day. I still cannot wrap my mind around the fact that this actually worked, and I'm really here with my best friend. 

Or- technically twin now. 

Stepping out of my seat at the table, I grabbed my bag and waited anxiously for Kat to finally get up and head out with me. Our schedules were identical, and so we had every class together. It seemed as if she was purposely taking forever to freak me out. 

"Would you hurry up? I'd like to not be late on our first day. None of these teachers know us and I want to make a good impression." I said, tapping my foot on the ground, growing more annoyed at her by the second.

Kat looked up quickly, and with a devious smile said, "My bad, I forgot your grades won't be helping you with that one. Gotta compensate somehow right?"

Fred and George's jaws dropped at her remark from across the table, and Oliver simply snickered, but it just resulted in a face palm from me.

"Jesus Kat, you'd fit right in with the Slytherins with a mouth like that." I sneered right back.

"I wish I was, so I don't have to be stuck with you" She added, sticking her tongue out at me. 

"Go right ahead, seems like one specific snake already has his eyes on you." I spat back at her, earning a giggle from her. We glared at each other for a moment, but then came together in a fit of laughter, leaving three very concerned faces from the boys left at the table.

"Do you two always go back and forth like that?" George piped up, confused.

Kat and I looked over at the same time, and with a expression as if he was asking the stupidest question in the world, answered, "Duh?". 

Turning back towards each other, we simply started laughing and finally headed out of the Great Hall. We were already making an impression, and it was certain to be a mischievous one here at Hogwarts. 

Speaking of mischief, as we walked together arm in arm out of the Great Hall, I heard a villainous cackle from somewhere behind Kat and I. I looked to my right, where she was, and she bore a similar confused look on her face. "Do you hear that?" I questioned, but all I got was a shrug in response.

"LOOK OUT!" I heard from a voice above us, and spun around to face the Hall. In the blink of an eye, a cold rush of water doused Kat and I, head to toe, and we became drenched.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." I heard Kat say from beside me, and as I pushed the mop that was my hair out of my face, it revealed a very proud-looking Peeves floating ten feet in the air above us. 

"I just HAD to welcome the new Gryffindors in the best way possible. So- WELCOME!" He beamed, and floated away and out of the hall. 

Kat turned around to go and chase after him, but I grabbed her sleeve and yanked her backwards. "We have to get to class. You can plan your revenge later.", I scolded.

In a fit of anger, and soaked to the core, Kat huffed, "Just give me thirty seconds to sic the Bloody Barron on him and I swear he'll never mess with-"

A cold breeze passed us by, and Peeves soared around Kat and I, standing in the doorway of the Great Hall. "Hooow might I ask do two brand new students know about my- friend?" He questioned, dragging every word with suspicion, but taking a pause before the word friend.

Kat and I looked at each other, with a face that only we knew, and I realized that the stupid bitch had gotten us into trouble, yet again. But luckily, she knew just how to get us out. "Peeves, we've been here for a day already. Fred told us all about how the Bloody Barron scares the bloody hell out of you." She said, with a eerie tone, and putting a mocking emphasis on the words bloody hell. 

"Fred? Fred who? Who on earth is spreading these LIES about me?" Peeves interrogated, but lacking confidence since the topic of the Bloody Baron was present. 

I chimed in, finally, with, "Fred Weasley, of course." Confidence radiated through my voice, and Peeves was taken aback by our newfound knowledge. 

A new but familiar voice entered the conversation, "What lies did I tell about you Peeves?", I turned to see Fred standing next to me, with his arms crossed and seemingly looking my drenched sister and I up and down, "What did you do to the new girls? They're actually quite nice. Feisty, but nice." He winked at me, before turning back towards the poltergeist floating in the air. 

Peeves took a deep breath to begin telling the story, but Kat cut him off and elbowed Fred secretly, and said, "You told us last night at the Feast about Peeves'- complicated- relationship with the Bloody Baron." She looked up at him, and his face was full of confusion, and she continued, expectantly, "Right??"

His face contorted for a moment, perplexed, but then went blank as he looked back at Peeves and said, "Why of course. I know Peeves, and I figured he'd pull some stunt on my two new favorite third years. I had to prepare them to defend themselves and learn how to wrangle you." He looked back down to me, and then back to Kat, proud of his improvisation. 

"Hmm... Okay then. Hope you enjoyed your welcome gift!" Peeves started suspiciously, and then floated away from our group.

Once he was out of earshot for certain, which we knew by the screaming of a few first year Hufflepuffs getting pelted with breakfast rolls, Fred whipped his head around and questioned us, "What just happened?" he looked between Kat and I, waiting for one of us to answer.

"Well..." I started, but trailed off into mumbling because I am a horrible liar.

Talking over me, in a harsh tone, Kat uttered, "Don't. Ask." He shut up quickly, and looked to me for more answers. I just shrugged my shoulders at him, and he snickered at our stupidity.

"I don't even want to know." Heading in the other direction to class, and catching up with George and Lee, and turned back and said, "I'd dry off quick before Potions if I were you." 

I turned to Kat, rolled my eyes, and headed back towards Gryffindor tower so we could go get changed, hoping to not be too late to Potions with Snape first class.

Never a dull moment at Hogwarts.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n: also, this is the last chapter in a first person pov. from now on it's going to be third person, it's just easier for me to write plus i want you to see what everyone else is thinking as well. i hope you enjoyed the chapter! -stripes


	5. Care of Magical Creatures

The loud and fast thumping of shoes could be heard throughout the castle as Eloise and Kat ran as fast as their legs could take them down through the halls towards the dungeons where the Potions classroom was. The building itself was not being of much assistance to the new girls though, because the stairs decided to change 3 different times, leaving them farther and farther away from their destination every minute. By the time they reached the dungeons, both students were heaving from exhaustion, with the rise and fall of their chests going as fast as they were. They began collecting themselves, and repositioning their uniforms that had become disheveled during the dash to class. Pulling her bag back up onto her shoulder, Eloise grabbed the handle on the door to enter the Potions classroom, but quickly pulled back. 

"Ow! What the fu-" She began cursing, waving her hand in the air, and then yanking it into her chest to clutch the fresh burn from the obviously-cursed doorknob. Suddenly, the wooden door in front of her was ripped open, revealing a tall, greasy and cloaked teacher who was towering over the girls. Slowly, fearing the person in front of her, Eloise peered upwards to look towards his face. Still nursing the fresh burn on her hand, she tried to begin defending their lateness but was silenced by the man towering above her. 

"What a... gift. Two new, pompous, self-obsessed Gryffindors who have no respect... to make my class continuously more miserable." He dragged every word, with his painfully monotone voice. "To what do I owe the... honor of being blessed with your presence? Finally decided to show up? Even though... my class started 15 minutes ago?" Snape glared them up and down, finished with his rant, awaiting an answer.

"My apologies, I had to dry my hair so it didn't look like yours." Kat spat, pushing past Snape and entering the sea of students who were all open-mouthed in shock.

"15 points from Gryffindor... each. For the lateness. And an extra 5 for that obnoxious mouth of yours." He spat, spinning around as she moved towards her seat. Groans from the students in maroon were heard all over the classroom. Eloise came out from behind him, and started panicking. She saw the look of offense on the professors face, and went on the recovery path. "Professor, I apologize for her, Peeves decided to give us a welcome gift this morning by dumping water over our heads just as we were heading to class, so we had to go back to Gryffindor tower and change." Her face was beet red, she tripped over her own two feet trying to find her seat next to Kat, who had already moved past the incident and sat down for class.

A voice piped up from the desk in front of them, where Hermione was sitting with Parvati Patil, and she turned to say, "Why didn't you just use the hot air charm to dry off? It could have saved us the house points." Kat and Eloise slowly turned to face each other, cheeks red with embarrassment, obviously not used to the idea that magic can solve anything. 

"Well, I-" Eloise began, before getting interrupted.

A snicker came from a group of boys sitting two rows behind them, and the sharp tone radiated from a private conversation to the rest of the class. "Of course the new Americans are too stupid to know how to do a drying charm... they probably deserve to be with the first years."

Eloise and Kat whipped around to look for the source of the dig, and quickly realized that it was none other than Draco Malfoy. Eloise looked personally offended, since the sorting hat had already put her lack of academic intelligence on display for all to hear. Kat on the other hand, took this opening to strike right back. "I'm surprised that you're not with the first years... that much bleach dye had to have burnt away the few brain cells left in there."

There was a chorus of "OoOoOs" heard around the room, and even earning a slight huff from Professor Snape as well. Though he refused to let anyone realize this fact, since the girl had just insulted his (greasy) appearance. Malfoy was thrown for a loop by her smart mouth, and was left with an even paler face than normal.

"Blimey- Kat, you have Malfoy speechless!" Ron leaned over from the table to their left, and Harry nodded eagerly beside him in pride. Eloise nudged her left side and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, making Kat's cheeks turn pink. The commotion of the class grew louder by the second, with the two sides being everyone but the Slytherins, versus the Slytherins. Someone on the snake side picked up their wand, and then people started going crazy. It seemed as though the situation was only going to get worse, but then a sharp, monotone, piercing voice silenced the students. 

"Take your... seats. Now." Snape commanded, and suddenly everyone quieted down. The two sides of the classroom blended back into one, and the ruffling of pages, clang of pewter cauldrons, and the crunch of crushing ingredients were the loudest real sounds in the room, but the silent tension between Draco Malfoy and Kat Thompson could be heard by everyone around. 

By the end of class, everyone had successfully reviewed the sleeping draught potion, except for Kat and Eloise. Due to their lateness, and the troubles they caused when they arrived, it set their potion back by an hour. Now, one of them had to come back and finish it after classes were done for the day. Eloise volunteered, since she already felt like she needed to prove something to the teacher her sister insulted on the first day. Everyone started packing up and putting away their materials when the dull voice of Professor Snape came up from behind the girls, yet again. This caused Eloise to yelp and knock over the jars of lavender and Flobberworm, and Kat hit her arm in annoyance.

"Katie Thompson... you will be staying after class for a moment." He sneered, and the snickers from the back of the classroom reappeared from earlier. 

"Fine." She mumbled, keeping her back turned to the teacher.

Snape walked away from the girls, and Hermione turned around from her seat in front of them and began to ramble. "I cannot believe you two. It's your first day here, and you've already been targeted by Peeves and Snape. Did you cause this much trouble back at your old school?"

With a quick side eye contact, and a mental communication that they needed to keep away from getting themselves into any trouble here, Katie laughed, "We always cause this much trouble. Or- I do." 

Eloise continued, "And I just do the cleanup so someone here doesn't wind up expelled."

Pavarti and Hermione started giggling, and Ron chimed in, "Ya know, I really was annoyed that you took up so much time during the Sorting Ceremony, but I can tell why." He had a slight smirk on his face, and then the whole group burst out laughing. Hermione blushed at the sound of his laugh, and both Eloise and Katie took notice. 

The group started for the door, when there was a loud, "Ahem" from the front of the classroom. Katie stopped in her tracks, and waved at the group to go ahead. Eloise was the last person to leave, giving her an encouraging good-luck thumbs-up as she exited.

Turning to face the angered Professor at the front, she forcefully hid her amused smile. He stepped towards her, and shortly said, "Detention. Scrubbing cauldron bottoms for a week. The attitude will not be tolerated in my classroom... I do not know what your old school was like and I do not care." 

Kat scoffed, and nodded her head before turning to bolt out of the room. Once she closed the door, and ran to catch up with the group, she jumped in the air with a whooping cheer. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all looked confused, since not a single person had ever had an encounter with Snape and lived to tell the tale with a smile. Let alone this kind of enthusiasm.

"What in the bloody hell is she on about?" Ron questioned, furrowing his brow at Eloise.

Eloise tried to hide her smile, but it was far from successful. "I'm placing my bet on she has detention with Snape." Inside, she knew it was not about Snape, but rather the hope that she would come in contact with a different Slytherin blood-purist, Draco Malfoy. Yet again, she had to keep that one a secret for now, since the group would not react kindly to learn she was head over heels for their bully. 

"Why would she be excited for detention?" Harry continued to investigate, as the Golden trio stared at the girls, baffled. 

Kat spun around, and began walking backwards in front of the group. "I got detention with Snape. For a WHOLE WEEK!" She beamed, smiling wide and cackling as she got to the stairs headed to divination. Noticing everyone's weird looks, the talented liar straightened herself out and covered her tracks again, "I'm only excited because I thought I'd have detention for a month or more. A week is nothing compared to my old school for a remark like that."

A wave of "Ahhhs" was emitted by the Golden Trio, who believed her lie wholeheartedly. If Kat was good at anything, it was getting herself out of stupid situations she could have easily avoided by not being stupid to begin with. 

~~~~

During Divination, Eloise could barely focus because of Kat's constant nagging and poking, reminding her that Care of Magical Creatures was next and she was not ready. Professor Trelawney went on and on about the predictions, and the eerie message Harry got from his tea leaves. It took all the will power in the world for the girls to not snicker at "the Grim" since they knew what was coming. 

A whisper was all they shared, from Kat: "It's not the Grim silly. It's Sirius in Animagus form!" This resulted in a slight giggle from the both of them, but nothing too noticeable.

Once class was over, and Eloise and Kat nodded at Ron being the only one to point out Hermione popping out of nowhere, the group headed to the most expected class of the day: Hagrid's'. 

~~~

The entire time marching down to the green where Hagrid was waiting for the class, Kat was stabbing Eloise in the side with her pointer finger, poking constantly to remind her about the event soon to take place. Finally reaching her limit, Eloise broke. "STOP! I get it!" Lowering her voice, for only Kat to hear, "I swear, you need to chill out. You get all excited, and then you just insult the man. You make no sense." She scoffed, and walked to catch up with the rest of their friends.

Kat laughed a little, as if her best friend didn't know what her personality was like. If Draco wasn't going to like her for her constant bickering, joking, and play insults, he wasn't going to like her. 

Eloise caught up to the Golden Trio, just in time to hear some of Hagrid's talking, "That's it. Come on, now. Come closer." He beckoned to the group.

Hermione leaned in to Eloise, and whispered, "So... I keep seeing you talking to Fred. Do you fancy him?" She looked to Eloise's eyes, and the blush on her cheeks. 

She was obviously caught off guard, and with a bright and beet red face, she answered, "Well... no? I just got here. I barely know how to get my way around the castle let alone begin to fancy someone." It was obvious that she was attempting to lie, and even Ron, who was barely paying attention to the conversation, laughed because of how obvious of a fail it was. 

"Oi, he's my brother. If you're going to talk about fancying him already, don't do it near me!" He pleaded, but the girls just laughed at him. 

Hagrid piped up, "Less talking, if you don't mind." Causing Eloise and Hermione to blush in embarrassment and immediately shut up. 

Hagrid was beaming with excitement, "I got a real treat for you today. A great lesson. So follow me." The group was shuffling over to Hagrid, and Eloise received another jab in the side from her sister who had finally caught up, and anticipating, wiggling eyebrows. It was met with a angry glare, but went unnoticed to everyone else. "Right, you lot. Less chattering." The rest of the group began to quiet down, with the Gryffindors shuffling together and separate from the Slytherins, whom they shared the class with. It is still shocking how many classes Slytherins share with their mortal enemies. Talk about setting yourself up for trouble. Hagrid continued, "Form a group over there. And open your books to page 49."

THWACK

"KAT- OH MY GOD" Eloise whipped around to see her sister standing with a book in her hand, after smacking her side with it. She positioned the book in front of her face, just with her mischievous eyes showing, and wiggled her brows at her excitedly again.

Right on schedule, Malfoy challenged, "Exactly how do we do that?" and on Eloise's right, Kat slowly lowered the book from her face, miming everything he was saying with her own mouth. Spawning a dramatic eyeroll from Eloise, who turned back to Harry, Hermione, and Ron to talk more about Hagrid's class. Eloise tried to ignore her best friend's eagerness beside her, but it was exploding more than the Weasley twin's fireworks. 

The remark from Draco obviously caught Hagrid off guard, but he smartly responded, "Just stroke the spine, of course." Eloise rolled her eyes towards her sister, where she realized what was happening. Draco rolled his eyes as well, and looked down to the bound book in his hands. The fingers decorated in silver, expensive rings stroked the book with ease, and he opened it without another comment or complaint.

Kat had burst into a fit of excitement, and she lowered the book from in front of her face to reveal a practically-maniacal smile. She looked as though her greatest wish had come true, and started to giggle under her breath. But then, her heart slowed down, and her eyes widened. Everything around Kat became a second thought, and all she could see was him. The whole world stopped, and for just this one moment, she let her guard down to stare at the blonde-haired boy with awe. She really did feel so much inside of her for this boy, the broken, shattered shell of a pureblooded wizard that stood in front of her. He was a man of so many layers, one that she couldn't even begin to break apart yet. It was just like her. Broken on the inside, but putting up a front of strength and stability to everyone else. One that no one is let in on, putting up a wall that is impenetrable to even the closest of friends and family. Kat had always struggled to let people in, and Eloise herself had barely broken through. She would comfort her in times of trouble, but her best friend always kept a part of herself hidden. As if it was going to come back and hurt her in the end if she shared with other people. The fortress around her mind and heart was something she was so terrified to let down, but there was a soft spot for him. Somehow, already, she knew he would be the one she was going to let inside, and finally share with. Eloise was her best friend, and up to that point the only one she confided in, but inside she knew there was room for more. Someone who needed a confidant more than she did. She wanted to be there for him, as well as he could be there for her. Two broken hearts to create a whole. 

Kat was jolted out of her daydream when the gnawing of a textbook came from her left. Neville was being knocked to the ground by his attacking book, and the group around him starting laughing. Eloise moved towards him to try and help, but was held back by Kat. Eloise looked towards her sister with concern, but was met with a look that said, "We can't disrupt the timeline." and then she nodded in understanding.

Neville was struggling to wrangle the book, and Hagrid scoffed at his sheer lack of luck, saying, "Goodness me. Don't be such a wimp, Longbottom." The students around him looked nervous, but couldn't help holding in their laughter.

Neville caught himself for a moment, and continued to fight with the book. He managed out a "I'm okay. Okay", before being tackled by the biting and growling textbook yet again. Someone from Gryffindor grabbed the book for him and tamed it, and everyone went back towards Hagrid in the clearing. 

Eloise was fixated on Neville's little incident, when she started back over to everyone. Hermione was saying something, and she only caught the end of her sentence, "I think they're funny." But so did someone else. 

"Oh, yeah. Terribly funny. Witty. God, this place has gone to the dogs. Wait until Father hears Dumbledore's got this oaf teaching classes." Draco Malfoy had stepped into the scene, and he decided to not only mock Hermione, but also make fun of Hagrid. He seemed to be on the attack already, since Hermione had told the new girls about a comment he made towards Harry last night at the feast when they weren't paying attention. He had poked fun of the rumors about Harry fainting on the train, and it got the trio really riled up. 

This did not sit well with Harry. Coming for him was one thing, but Hagrid was like his family. His fists were balled up alongside his robes, and he spat, "Shut up, Malfoy.", through his clenched teeth. The anger and rage filled up his body, and quite obviously radiated off of him. Anyone within 100 feet could tell that Malfoy struck a nerve. 

Suddenly though, Draco's demeanor changed. And so did Kat's. He relaxed, and a pang of fake fear settled on his face. Kat tensed up, and a pang of excitement and expectancy filled her eyes. As he began, so did she. "Dementor! Dementor!" He pointed, towards the group but higher up, to signal behind them. Everyone except Kat turned quickly, which caught Draco's eye. Him and his Slytherin goons began laughing, but Draco stepped forwards toward the girl, who had been mouthing his every word. To someone who was unaware of their situation, it seemed as though she was mocking him. And that is exactly what Draco Malfoy assumed. 

Hermione was in the background, and turned to Harry and attempting to calm him down from his high of anger. "Just ignore him." Eloise grabbed his arm, and looked down at his still clenched fists. He relaxed, and smiled amicably back up at his new friend. She sent him a friendly smile back, and remembered why she was so excited to be there. It was like a fresh start, without all the pressures of the modern days. Ron was beside them, mumbling something about stroking the book, and attempting to work up the courage to try and unclasp it. Everyone was blissfully unaware of the trouble Kat had gotten herself into already, and it was just about to get worse. 

He took another step closer to her, and challenged, "Are you mocking me- you filthy American?" 

It caught Kat off guard, but she was always ready for any situation with a smart comeback- that was for certain- "Of course, the self-obsessed Slytherin assumes everyone loves and admires him. Guess what pretty boy- not everything is about you." She scoffed, with a slight shrug to show her 'lack of interest'. 

"Oh really? Because it seems to me that every time I look, your eyes are trained on me. What do your filthy mudblood friends have to say about that one?" He seemed to really enjoy emphasizing his slurs. 

He had struck another nerve in the Gryffindor blood, and Kat raised her arm in what seemed like an attempt to swing- but she was stopped when a hand halted it midway. She whipped her whole body around to see Eloise, with a look that could only be compared to a fierce and angry dragon, holding onto the sleeve of her robe. Turning to her friends, she noticed Hermione, who now seemed to be filled with bottled-up rage as well. If Draco was good at anything, it was knowing how to hit people where it hurt. Mentally, at least. 

Everyone seemed to simmer down a bit, and although tensions were high between the two houses, the rest of class went by quite smoothly. Or- at least until Harry came back from his little joy-ride with Buckbeak. Malfoy decided that he couldn't let the Chosen One show him up again, and walked right up to the Hippogriff with a swagger that only the stupidest of people would display in the presence of a magical creature like him. 

It didn't end well. If this event had taken place before the little spat he and Kat had at the beginning of class, she may have felt bad for him- or even warned him. But to his demise, she was just too angry to function. There were a thousand thoughts running through her mind, because while she still was infatuated with him, she realized this was not going as smoothly as it was for Eloise and Fred. 

Draco was a lot more complicated. 

~~~~

After the complicated end of lessons for the day, the gang was more than relieved to go to dinner in the Great Hall. Eloise had to spend her off period finishing their sleeping draught potion from class earlier that morning, and she met everyone at dinner that evening. She was cornered- yet again- by Oliver Wood who was practically bursting at the seams to tell her about the upcoming Quidditch trials. He was eager to tell her everything she needed to bring, what the different requirements were, and then break down his training plan for the year. The Weasley twins had landed themselves at the table, donning mischievous grins, most likely result of a successful prank around the castle. 

Fred was deep in conversation with Eloise, by the time Kat picked her head out of her books and looked up at the table. To be completely frank, she absolutely hated reading, but was too embarrassed to stare at Draco again- since he obviously noticed, and pointed it out during their argument. She had been picking at her food all evening, while her best friend was practically inhaling her dinner. Eloise and Ron had something in common, their love for food. Last night in the dorms, she had gone on for almost 15 minutes about how good the food was. She was close to going down to the kitchens to thank and praise the house elves themselves. 

"No- no. That is so horrible! You cannot bash Queen!" Eloise groaned, her body turned towards Fred, who conveniently sat next to her that night at dinner. 

"But you're the one who just told me that Bahama Rhapsody is 6 whole minutes! That is WAY too long to be an enjoyable song."

"Bohemian Rhapsody.", She corrected, before continuing, "And six minutes is NOT long. Especially not when it comes to the talented Freddie Mercury."

Fred perked up at the mention of his own name, "Freddie you say- I doubt he's as good looking as this Freddie." He wiggled his eyebrows and pulled at his collar with both hands, popping it with a cocky pride. 

Ron finally picked his face out of his meal, and giggled at the thought of what he was about to say. "Say- Fred, I pity Eloise already if you think 6 minutes is too long to be enjoyable."

Both Fred and Eloise turned beet red- even redder than the Weasley's fiery hair. But this was good enough entertainment for their whole friend group, since they all burst into laughter at the two's expense. 

A few minutes later, all Fred said was, "You'll have to get me to listen to that Bahama Rhapsody sometime..."

Eloise giggled, and knocked into him while she was still picking at her food, mumbling, "Bohemian Rhapsody."

Kat smiled at the two, happy for how smitten her best friend was. She was so happy to be there, just laughing with him and all of their new friends.

But in the back of her mind, there was a pang of jealousy. Or- anger? How was it that Eloise was succeeding, and yet Kat almost threw a punch at Draco today. She brushed the thought away, because she knew that she should feel only happy and excited for her friend. But she couldn't completely shake the notion- 

It just didn't seem fair. 

*****


	6. Trials and Troubles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n: hi! this is important!! i found an official calendar of all the events that take place day-by-day in poa, and i just wanted to let you all know that while i'm sticking to it for the most part, there's going to be a lot more quidditch. like i'm just pushing up a lot of the matches and adding more. it won't take away from the plot at all, but i have a timeline of stuff that needs to happen. enjoy the chapter! -stripes

****

Friday, September 3rd, 1993

The next morning, Eloise was dragged out of bed by her sister yet again, and rushed to get ready. Hermione and Lavender's beds were empty as well. Lavender hadn't really interacted with the two new girls very much, and to be quite honest they didn't mind. They clicked instantly with Hermione and the rest of the Trio, and that's all they needed. 

Eloise slowly floated around the room in a daze of sleepiness, and attempted to pull all of her belongings together for class. Her sister, on the other hand was always a morning person and became slowly more aggravated at Eloise's slow speed. "I wonder how you ever managed to be on time for anything moving that slow."

"You'd think that you would be used to it by now, knowing me for this long."

"I- but this is Hogwarts! I would assume that you'd be a little more motivated while we're here." Kat had her hands on her hips, and her backpack slung over her shoulder already. Tie tied, and hair done perfectly, she was the exact opposite of what Eloise looked like currently. It seemed as though this was going to be a regular occurrence. 

"I have quidditch trials today after classes, so I'll be back late. Do you want to come and watch? Hermione said last night at dinner anyone is welcome to attend, and she'll be there."

Kat huffed slightly, and rolled her eyes. "I can't. First detention with Snape tonight."

"Of course... how could I forget. Y'know you almost scared our friends to death with your excitement yesterday over detention with Snape. Ron was half convinced you were in love with him- instead of Draco." Eloise slowly started to perk up in her tone, and finally began really waking up. 

Kat ignored her comment, and attempted to change the subject. "Hey- our birthday is next week! We should get the twins to throw us a birthday party. I bet I could get Draco to come." 

"Is that smart? I mean you almost threw a punch at him yesterday." Eloise was elbow-deep in her trunk now, rummaging around for something deep in the endless pit of clothes and belongings. Finally, she pulled out a hairbrush, and then walked over to a mirror hanging on the wall to fix the mess of hair on her head. 

Kat shrugged, "Well- it's better to try than nothing." 

Both girls laughed, and Eloise continued preparing for the day. Kat had moved towards the door at this point, leaning against it waiting for her sister. Eloise finally finished, and headed to exit, but was stopped from leaving when Kat slammed her hand on the door. 

"What are you forgetting?" She knowingly questioned. Eloise frantically looked around, and then finally up and down her own appearance, and noticed that she had, yet again, forgotten her tie. 

"Ugh. I got it. Can you tie it for me-" She started, but by the time she turned around from grabbing it off her desk, her sister was far gone down the stairs. 

In the common room, Kat met up with the Weasley twins, who were huddled around a table that was covered in ready-to-place dungbombs. She yanked George's arm, yet again, and without another word, speeded out of the common room. He barely even managed out a protest this time, leaving Fred all alone. 

Eloise walked down the tower stairs, slowly stepping into the common room, where her assumption was correct. Her sister had planned, again, to leave her and Fred alone, and force her to ask him for help with her tie. 

Fred looked up from where he was standing, and craned his neck slightly at the sight of the third year who had just arrived. "Morning sleepy-head." He looked her up and down, huffing slightly when he noticed the tie messily flung around her neck again. "Need help?" 

Eloise nervously looked down at her neck, and then tilted her head upwards to him. "Uh... yeah... would you mind?" 

"Anything for you" He cheekily stated, and walked up to her, leaving little space between them. Head down, grabbing the two pieces of cloth from the sides of her neck, he began tying it and looked up at her. "Quidditch trials today. You ready?" 

"As ready as ever." She proudly declared, but wavered a bit towards the end.

Fred took notice of this, and when finishing the tie, he grabbed her bag off the floor where she had dropped it. "It's okay to be nervous y'know. Happens to the best of us." 

Eloise took the bag from his hand, and the two touched for a split second when their hands brushed against the other. A slight blush crept onto Fred's cheek, before Eloise piped up again. "I just don't want to let anyone down. Kat loves to hype me up, which I appreciate, but not before getting to show anyone my skills." 

Fred nodded in understanding, "Yeah- I can get that. Angelina, Katie, and Alicia are pretty good as a team so our chaser slots are heavily contended this year." Eloise stopped in her tracks at his words, and visibly started to get quite tense. Fred realized and started to stammer, "Wait- no- that means nothing. I- well Oliver just cares about winning, you've got nothing to worry ab-." At this point, Eloise had continued walking but was obviously much more nervous than she had been five minutes previously. He calmed his voice, and just as they were about to push the portrait door out of the common room, he grabbed her shoulder and turned towards her. Fred placed both his hands on her tiny shoulders, and leaned down to her level. "I promise you, you're gonna kill it out there today. I'll be cheering you on the whole time." There was a sincerity in his voice that was new, and something that not many others had experienced. Eloise relaxed her shoulders, noticing how big his hands were while holding her. She looked down at them, then back up at Fred, and as soon as he realized this, he yanked his hands away and turned beet red. 

The two awkwardly shuffled out of the portrait hole, and headed to breakfast. Kat was sitting with their friends already, wearing another face of mischief and pride. She commented on her plan's triumph when Eloise sat down next to her, and the two just giggled together.

~~~~

The day's classes went by quite quickly, with everyone in Gryffindor looking forward to the tryouts that were set to take place after school. Quidditch was a very important factor to life at Hogwarts, and the entire house was determined to cinch the cup for them this year. Eloise seemed the most nervous, but her talk with Fred before breakfast seemed to ease the nerves slightly. 

Kat and Hermione were sat in the common room after classes, and were deep in conversation about something pertaining to Potions and the Snape incident from the day before. Eloise had gone straight up to the dorms after class had finished to start getting ready for tryouts, and hadn't been seen since. As Kat was slowly growing more concerned for her friend, she noticed the rest of the quidditch hopefuls starting to gather in the common room. 

Hermione realized she was becoming increasingly frantic in search for her sister, commenting, "Why don't you go up to the dorm and check on her? I'm sure she's just misplaced her game gloves or something" She smiled amicably towards her new friend, with a kindness that always showed in her eyes.

At that notion, Kat bolted right up the tower stairs to their dorm, leaving the rest of the loud and bustling maroon room behind. Fred was the only one who noticed, since his eyes had been fixated on the stairs to the girls rooms since he finished getting ready. It seemed as though he was just as nervous for Eloise as she was for herself. Or was it he was nervous about Eloise? 

Upstairs, Kat finally reached the door to her room, heaving from the run she had just gone on to get up the tower. Practically slamming the door open, she stumbled into the room and landed with her hands on her knees, doubled over from the exhaustion. "Are... you- ready?" She managed out, before finally looking up to see a strange picture.

Eloise was sat on her bed, completely ready for the trials. Maroon and gold practice robes on, hair tied up in a perfectly-Eloise ponytail, with the baby hair pieces framing the edges of her face, her Firebolt and gloves sitting right next to her. But confusingly, she didn't seem like she was ready. 

With her breath caught now, Kat tried again, but softer. "Are you ready?" 

Eloise had one leg crossed in front of her on the bed, and the other swung over the side. Her head was down, and her hands in her lap pensively. "I- I'm scared Kat... I've never actually done this before. How am I supposed to prove that I'm good enough for everyone when I don't even know if I am?" She fiddled with the cloth of her robes, before shyly tilting her head up to look at her friend. 

Kat sighed, and placed two knowing hands on her hips. "Are you serious? I know you. If there's anything you're good at, it's sports. How different can it be? A couple of feet higher in the air, and some different game balls. It's basically football and soccer put together- with a bit of basketball." She laughed in between her sentence, trying to ease the worries of her sister. "I promise you. If anything goes wrong, I'll say I jinxed your broom or something stupid because of something that you said about my hair." 

That finally got Eloise to react: an out. If anything went wrong, she wouldn't get stuck trying to come up with a lie, or tell people she wasn't really a killer chaser. But she didn't get to dwell on it too much, because Kat found her way over to the side of her bed, and grabbed her broom and gloves in one hand, and stuck out her other. "Ready to show them all what you've got?"

Eloise finally got her confidence back: "Ready as ever."

Both girls beamed proudly, and made their way down the tower stairs, hand-in-hand. Eloise was met with a huge bear hug from Oliver when she landed in the common room, until he straightened himself out and mentioned something like, "Gotta be professional. Can't seem like I've got any favorites before I see anyone play." 

Everyone around them laughed, and finally headed out towards the pitch. Eloise and Fred wound up walking together, and George caught up to them on Eloise's other side. The three were walking all together, and laughing playfully about how she can help them prank Filch. 

Once on the pitch, Eloise was dumbfounded. From afar, the stadium didn't seem too bad, but when you're standing small in the middle of it, the towers seemed enormous, and the goal posts a thousand feet up. Her mouth was practically hanging open, but gained more confidence when the twins popped back up at her side. They both playfully slapped her shoulders, shouting: "See you out there Thompson!" before flying away on their brooms. 

The rest of the hopefuls were directed to 10 laps around the field on their brooms by Oliver, to try and observe their speed and agility when flying. All at once, the team took off into the air, all but one. 

A shout from Oliver, "Eloise! What are you waiting for?" 

She immediately was brought back to reality, and with her new gloves on, and her fancy Firebolt in hand, swung her right leg over it with speed. As if it was second nature, she kicked off from the ground aggressively, and took off. The wind caught her broom like it was lifting her into it's breeze with open arms. She flew faster than anyone in the stands had ever seen before, and caught up with the team in a split second. Fred and George were goofing off, until they were passed by a flash of maroon, gold, and a slick ponytail in the wind. 

"Was that-" George began.

And with a wicked smile, Fred finished: "Eloise."

From the stands, Hermione was screaming louder than anyone around her in support of Eloise. Even the veteran seventh-year players were shocked by her speed and agility on a broom. And it certainly wasn't because of the Firebolt. She was a natural. 

Oliver was floating in the air on his broom, and wore the same shocked, open-mouthed face that Eloise had on earlier, but it slowly turned into a wide grin as the trials continued. During the chaser drills, Eloise never missed a shot. She caught every ball thrown to her by Angelina, and was always there when Alicia needed to pass. Without even a need to look up, she knew exactly the perfect time to toss the quaffle to Katie Bell, and dodged flying bludgers from every angle. 

~~~~

On the other side of the castle grounds, the other Thompson sibling was not having as successful of an evening. Not even a moment after arriving to the dungeons, Snape had her scrubbing cauldron bottoms with no magic allowed. She hated cleaning more than anything, and normally Eloise would straighten up for her- she loved to have things neat and tidy. Kat was silently groaning ten minutes in, aggravated and exhausted from the grueling task. She had barely slept a wink the night before, tossing and turning from the endless thoughts running through her mind. She couldn't shake the complaint of her lack of success with Draco. While it could partially be blamed on her stubbornness and perceived hatred for the boy, it still was so drastically different from Eloise and Fred. The two were practically snogging already. Yeah... snogging was the word they used here. She learned that from Lee Jordan, who asked her very bluntly during lunchtime if she had ever 'snogged' anyone back at home. He was a very peculiar and funny person, certainly takes after a similar bluntness and straight to the point character that she possessed. 

It had been about an hour and a half through her detention, when her stomach grumbled for dinner. She worked up the guts to say something to Snape, who had been glaring her down with evil eyes since she walked in the room. "Sir- when will I be done for the night?" She looked up from the cauldron she was currently working on, to see an even angrier Professor. 

"You'll be done when I say you are. Should teach you to not talk back or insult a teacher."

That was the last time she said anything all evening, and by the time he finally let her go, she had missed dinner. On her way out, she asked a fifth year how to get to the kitchens, and she headed to grab something quick to eat before sluggishly heading back to Gryffindor tower. 

This was not without some sort of trouble, because just as she was leaving the lower parts of the castle, with her head low, she bumped right into the person she was avoiding.

"Malfoy."

"Thompson." 

"Watch where you're-" She started, but he raised his wand to her throat before she could finish.

"I don't know what your game is, but quit it. I cannot have you in my way, you filthy American. I need to be able to focus." He ripped his wand away from her throat, and stormed off towards the dungeons without another word.

Kat gasped for her breath, losing it after the strange confrontation. She couldn't tell if she lost it from being confused, or because she was aroused. It seemed to be a bit of both. He couldn't focus because of her? What on earth did that mean... was there actually something there? He seemed to be as stubborn and stuck-up as she expected, but threatening her... she really had thrown him for a loop. And he had thrown her for one as well. 

She stood with her back against the wall for a few moments, trying to sort through all of the thoughts running in her mind at a million miles an hour. He really enjoyed calling her a filthy American. That bothered her a lot. Why was he so rude? It's not like she punched him- she only tried to. Eloise stopped that one. Would've complicated their relationship a lot more had she really punched him. 

Once she finally collected her thoughts, she stormed off to the dorms, just wanting this night to end. She needed sleep, and most definitely some quiet. Something she was not about to get.

It had been a good thing she had missed dinner, because she was in such a bad mood now that she would've been aggravated with the sight it beheld. 

~~~~

A group of maroon and gold piled into the Great Hall for dinner with a loud racket, and two red-head twins had the new girl on their shoulders, cheering loud as they made their entrance. Lee Jordan's voice rang out through the Hall: "Gryffindor is bound to win the cup this year- their new team is going to be UNSTOPPABLE!" The entire Gryffindor table that was already eating exploded in cheers, with Professor McGonagall sharing a tiny smile from the teachers table to the obviously-overwhelmed girl. She struggled to balance herself on Fred and George's shoulders, as they were bouncing up and down in excitement as they walked to the table.

Dinner was equally as loud and overwhelming, as Eloise was swarmed with questions, encouraging slaps on the back, and cheers from all around. She smiled at everyone, and was really just happy to be on the team. Oliver was the most ecstatic of them all, boasting to anyone who would listen about how he was so excited to build the 'best team of chasers Gryffindor- NO- HOGWARTS has ever seen.' 

Fred mindlessly picked up on Eloise getting overwhelmed, and placed his hand on her back and began drawing little circles to try calm her anxiety a bit. She relaxed at his touch, and the rest of the evening was easy. He never took his hand away, and both of them had a slight tinge of pink to their cheeks during dinner. The two of them were engulfed in conversation at the table, and while they assumed that no one else took notice of their slight physical touch, Hermione had eyed his hand the second he moved. A small smirk grew on her face, and the entire aura of the Gryffindor table was positively bright the whole night. 

Eloise was getting cheered all the way up to the tower, and finally stumbled up to the fat lady, with Lee Jordan booming, "Fortuna Major" and dramatically spreading his arms to welcome the newest member of the quidditch team into the common room. She giggled, arm-in-arm with Angelina and Alicia, who were the first-string chasers, and Katie Bell, who had now been bumped to second string, following close behind. Fred and George leaped into the warm room, each to one side, with their arms out in pride, shouting, 

"Welcoming the newest member of the team, ELOISE THOMPSON!" 

Anyone who had been previously studying in the common room was now applauding the dramatics of the twins, and Eloise was extremely flustered as she stepped in from the portrait hole. 

About an hour later, the energy and chaos had seemed to simmer down. Fred, George, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Eloise were all huddled around the fireplace on the couch, loveseat, and armchair. Hermione was huddled up in the chair with her usual copy of Hogwarts: A History, Ron and George were sat on the couch, with George throwing his lanky legs across the entire length of it, Fred and Harry schlumped in the loveseat together, and Eloise sat on the floor in front of the couch twirling her wand around her fingers. Everyone had showered from practice, and changed into sweatpants and a clutter of different maroon Gryffindor shirts, sweatshirts, and sweaters. They were in a blend of conversation, with Hermione and Ron bickering about their Transfiguration summer reading, and Fred and Harry talking about Oliver's insane practice schedule. They were supposed to be up at the crack of dawn for practice the next morning, with more and more workouts being added to their calendar. 

George was mindlessly humming to himself, and Eloise was staring off into the fire deep in thought. Hermione stuck a dramatic hand up at Ron, seemingly ending their conversation, and turned towards Eloise. 

"Say- when is yours and Kat's birthday? I keep everyone's on a calendar, and I don't have yours on it yet." 

Everyone in the group perked up at the mention of a birthday, and Eloise giggled before answering, "Actually, it's September 10th. A week from today!" 

The 5 others around the fire exploded in hysterics, with Fred being the loudest. 

"How did you not tell us this earlier! That's so soon!" 

George appeared the most excited, "We just HAVE to throw a party in the common room. Everyone loves you already!" 

"Plus- Gryffindor does throw the best parties to begin with." Harry astutely stated, with a sense of pride. 

A full-blown debate ensued, with the manner of decorations, who's invited, what food and drinks are to be served, with Hermione in the lead for no alcohol, and George on the attack of 'why not a little fun'. Eloise was flustered yet again, until her attention was drawn by Fred, who asked, "So- how old will you be turning? 14 or 15?", he tried to seem uninterested, but really was dying to know. George had accosted him earlier for not knowing a lot about Eloise, so he was trying to catch up in that department. 

Eloise quickly answered, "Kat and I will be 15. Since we weren't old enough by the September 1st of the year, we were held back to start school. We're the oldest in the year I guess." 

George clasped his hands together, beaming. "Well. That settles it then. Next Friday, a back to school birthday party for the two newest lions in the tower!" 

Everyone was smiling at the thought of a good time, but Eloise could only think about where her best friend was. Dinner was over an hour past, and she still hadn't returned from her detention with Snape. Surely it couldn't have been that grueling and time-consuming. Unless maybe she had gotten lost on her way? 

Right at that moment, the portrait hole swung open and closed faster than light. Eloise stood straight up from where she was sitting against the couch, smoothened herself out, and bore an enormous smile from ear to ear. She was so excited to tell Kat all about tryouts, and the overwhelming events of this afternoon. 

Kat stepped out from the portrait hole, with a face that said it all. Sadly, only Eloise could read her face, and realize how horrible her evening had gone- and more importantly, who caused it to go so horribly. Their friends, who could not tell this from her facial expression, burst into 5 different conversations, about Quidditch trials, dinner's antics, the birthday party, and more. 

Kat looked over to the fireplace where her sister was awkwardly standing with a stupidly happy smile, grunted in frustration, and took off towards the dorms faster than the golden snitch. 

Everyone looked to Eloise in confusion, who just fell to the floor and placed her head in her hands. George, Harry, and Ron spun their heads around looking for some help or answers, and Hermione just shrugged. Fred was the only one who dared to say a word, "What just happened?"

With sad, knowing little eyes, she looked up at him and muttered, "Draco."

****


	7. Escalation

That evening, when Eloise noticed how upset her sister was when she ran into the common room and bolted to the dorms, she quickly said her goodbyes for the night and headed to talk to her. Once she made it up the tower stairs, she walked into the room slowly to see Kat, sitting cross-legged on the bed, with a major puss on her face. Eloise slowly walked over to her bed and sat down, staring at her sister expectantly. 

"Well...? What happened with Draco?" 

Kat looked up at her, and just groaned before flopping back on her bed in defeat. The two burst into giggles and all was well again. For now.

They made up quickly, will Kat begrudgingly hugging it out, but it was all brushed off and not really discussed. Right away, Kat shared all the details from the weird interaction with Draco, and Eloise spilled the exact play-by-play from the trials, and the eventful evening afterwards. 

They never really talked about the tantrum Kat had, but Eloise was dying to flesh it out. She was upset that her best friend felt the need to rain on her perfect day, and she was angry that Kat had been so selfish after detention when all Eloise wanted was to tell her about her day. 

Kat was so aggravated with what was happening with Draco, but more so that Eloise was so high up on cloud nine with Fred and quidditch that she didn’t realize that she was drifting away from her. 

They both went to bed with a silent cloud of tension and unresolved issues in the air, but neither one was prepared to address it. 

The next few days blew past, with Eloise barely getting a second to breathe between all of the homework and quidditch practices, and Kat avoiding talking to her as much as possible because of her little tantrum from the night after her detention. Even if she had wanted to talk about it, there wouldn't have been a chance. She was going between detention, the Great Hall for meals, and the library for 'studying'.

Kat never really studied, but found that it was the only possible escape from the chaos. People in the common room were always too loud, and especially when the quidditch team would come in from practices they were exceptionally obnoxious. She would sit in the back of the library for hours just doodling on different assignments that she hadn't completed yet or turning them into little origami birds to levitate in the air. She was bored out of her mind, just trying to do anything to avoid people.

Eloise on the other hand was never bored. She took up pranking with the twins, launching three dungbomb attacks on unsuspecting students, and a huge one on Filch. George had gotten caught twice, Fred once, meanwhile Eloise was still running with a clean record. She was the fastest runner out of the three of them, so as soon as they heard someone coming she was already long gone from sight. This made one twin very annoyed, but the other absolutely captivated. Overall, they were very happy to have a new partner in crime, and especially one who provided even more ideas and fun. Eloise was having the time of her life with the pranking. She had opened up a part of her personality she never would have touched back in Seattle, and it showed. The girl was never spotted without a smile on her face, even when she was stressed out of her mind in Potions or History of Magic. 

If she wasn’t pulling pranks and getting away with it by the skin of her teeth, she was being grilled at Quidditch practice by Oliver Wood. He made special practice times just for the three chasers, Angelina, Alicia, and Eloise. They were being trained practically every day, on top of the regular insane full-team practices in the morning and after class. Wood was determined to spend every possible free second preparing for their first match of the year against Slytherin. Just as much time was spent on the field was spent in the locker room breaking down the intel on their playing patterns and strategies to win the game. Every member of the team would come straggling into the common room late in the evening, barely enough time to catch dinner, with bags under their eyes and nursing sore muscles. Out of everyone though, Eloise was still managing to keep a smile on her face, even though the eye bags were showing differently.

This had been a common theme for her even back in Seattle. There were days when all she had wanted was to go to bed and not wake up, but somehow she always put on a face of happiness and smiles. It was her greatest strength but also biggest weakness. She was a strong girl, and never let anyone see her otherwise. Kat had always had a tougher time in her family and at school, so Eloise never wanted to be sulking or sad around her since she didn’t have it as bad. She put up a wall of positivity and radiating joy even when she wasn’t feeling that way inside. It was impressively skilled.

~~~~

The quidditch team was growing restless, and on Wednesday evening after practice they were all sitting in the locker room while Oliver was cleaning up the practice equipment on the pitch. Fred and George were leaned against two posts holding up the tent, sweaty and breathing heavily, Angelina and Alicia flopped back to back on a bench, Katie sitting next to them with her head in her hands, and Eloise just dropped to sit on the floor with her feet out in front of her and her broom tossed lazily to the side. 

Another sweaty and tired face entered the tent, Harry Potter. He pulled the tent entrance to the side and walked in slowly, looking just as burnt out as the rest of them. 

Giving a light laugh, he started, “You all look like you haven’t slept in days.”

The group all released little huffs of laughter, and Alicia piped up, “I’m pretty sure it’s because we haven’t.” 

Angelia and Katie laughed a little, but Eloise, who was still sitting on the floor propped up with her elbows, was quiet.

George took his foot and nudged her back slightly, and just got a groan in response. He looked to Fred, who shrugged his shoulders tiredly. Everyone was so tired, and could barely utter any response to questions posed right then. 

Finally, Oliver gallantly strode into the tent, with a strangely large amount of pep in his step. “I can finally say, I think we’re ready for the first game on Saturday.” 

This woke up the team, and Katie uttered the question they were all waiting to ask. “Are we going to have practice on Friday?” 

Everyone had been looking forward to the party at the end of the week, and none more than this group of exhausted teens in desperate need of a break. Eloise’s back was to Oliver, and she dropped her head to look at him upside down. 

“Please Oliver-” She began, before a lightbulb went off in her head, and her tone changed to a plea, “It’s my birthday.” She found a last reserve of energy and flipped from her spot on the ground to face him, wearing a big puppy-dog smile, and soft eyes that made her pleas even more convincing. As soon as she finished the sentence, all her energy was gone, and the exhaustion rushed back to her entire figure.

He slowly looked down at the girl, sitting with her legs thrown on the ground and with the biggest pleading eyes. She had a small light inside of them, even though there were dark bags underneath. Oliver laughed a little, and then looked back up towards the rest of the team. “I’m not stupid. I’m going to the party too. I saw the idiotic flyer you put up in the common room for everyone.” He glared around the room, with his head tilted down but his eyes up at everyone.

There was a slight moment of awkward tension and silence, but then a sudden giggle exploded from the floor. Everyone glanced down, to see the new American practically rolling around on the floor in laughter. Fred looked over to the other chaser girls, who looked just as confused as he was. Oliver squatted down to her level, where Eloise was now maniacally laughing, and he just stared into her eyes that were now welling with tears. 

“AH- Ahah… I just- It’s so funny!” Swaying back and forth, and in between heavy breaths and extremely loud cackles, she heaved out small words and mumbles.

Oliver looked up nervously towards the Weasley twins, over to Harry, and then back to Eloise. He placed a steadying hand on her leg, and said, warily, “Wha- What’s so funny?” 

She had her head down, and when she finally picked it up between laughs, everyone noticed the large amounts of tears in her eyes. Eloise looked up towards him, and then to Fred, “I’m just… so tired.” The tears that were building fell down her face, but she was somehow still smiling and laughing. Everyone in the room looked confused, and unsteady, until another laugh broke through. 

Harry was standing in the entryway of the tent, and had doubled over in laughter. 

Angelina piped up from the bench, “Not you too!” 

Eloise and Harry were laughing their heads off, and then Fred and George joined in. Everyone in the tent began laughing and cackling it was as if the funniest thing in the world had happened, and Oliver Wood was just staring at them like they were insane. 

Until it clicked. With a sad, knowing voice he looked down at his feet, then back up to the team. “I’ve overworked you all haven’t I.” He posed the question, while knowing the answer already by the scene in front of him full of crazed and weary athletes, laughing with tears in their eyes.

Alicia Spinnet caught her laughter for a moment, and taunted, “You think?”

Eloise broke out of her insanity, and voiced her argument: “Oliver. You’re an amazing captain, but you’ve had the new team together not even a week and we’ve had almost 20 practices. Morning, night, lunchtime- we do have to be able to have a life here too.” She paused for a moment, letting another dazed and weary tear fall. “Even you have to understand that this is too much.” No one was sad, but they had just been pushed to the point where their bodies were telling them it was too much. 

Oliver simply nodded in response, and the entire team took a collective breath of relief. He had seen them, remembered they were all friends and working towards the same goal. He understood that they all wanted to win, just as much as him, but placed a higher level of importance on social and academics than he realized. Oliver had forgotten that time doesn’t stop at quidditch, and that there needs to be time for social activities, friends, and the rigorous coursework there was at Hogwarts. 

After the wake-up call for Oliver, practices became less stressful and more realistic. One two hour practice after class but before dinner, and the team was able to sleep and get work done. It became routine and comfortable, which was a benefit for everyone around. Collectively, the entire Gyffindor house was grateful after the rumors of the breakdown spread, because everything lied in the balance of the team being both well trained and well rested for Saturday.

The next challenge was planning Friday night’s party in accordance with Oliver. He didn’t want any alcohol, nothing that would inhibit their abilities for the game the next day. It seemed like the twins had other plans though, but agreed with him just to get a ‘yes’ from their captain.

~~~~

Yet again, the other Thompson sister was struggling, but even more. Not to the point of a crazed and dazed mental break, but certainly a bad one. Kat was stuck in detention every night that week, and by the end of Tuesday, she was burnt to a crisp from the draining days. 

Her next trouble was going to be somehow getting out of Friday’s detention so she could get to her birthday party in the common room. Fred and George had offered to pull some crazy prank and distract Snape long enough for her to escape, but she had a strange feeling that she was going to get away with it and not need their help. 

Wednesday evening after classes, she headed down to the dungeons to serve her detention out another night with Snape. Kat was dragging her feet, and internally groaning at the expected torture to come for the next three hours minimum. Turning the corner right before the classroom, she noticed a flash of bright hair in front of her, but it disappeared as the door to Snape’s classroom slammed closed. She was still at the end of the hallway, but began to pick up the pace as her heart started to race. The thought flashed through her mind, of who it could have been, what might be to come if she has to run into him, and why he’s there. She was blowing through situations that could happen, and more importantly how to get out of it.

But no. She was being irrational. Why would he be at her detention? Snape had made it clear that he was not tolerating her behavior, and she had three more nights of detention, alone. No one could help her, and since it was so early in the year no one else had gotten detention yet. 

Unless someone else had?

No. She pushed the thought from her mind and stormed down the hallway towards the now-closed door. Reaching out to grab the handle, Kat took a deep breath, and began to turn the knob when it was forcefully pulled open from the other side. She stumbled forward and crashed right into the boy in front of her, who seemed more displeased than ever to be there. 

“I- uh…sorry?” Kat said, questionably. She collected herself and smoothen her robes out before looking up at the figure before her, Draco Malfoy. He glared down at her, towering over her small figure. 

“Watch where you’re going.” He spat, before spinning around to face the classroom again, and presumably saying to Professor Snape, “I’ll see you in the morning Professor.”

Turning back towards Kat, he looked her disheveled self up and down before stepping towards her to exit. She noticed this, and moved to step out of his way, but then he sped right into her side. Draco purposely knocked into her shoulder, and sent her to land right on her arse on the ground. 

“What the fuck?!” She exclaimed after crashing to the floor, threw her head back to look up at the Slytherin who was now standing completely over her, with his hands in his pockets. 

“I said-” He started, with a sneer, “watch where you’re going.” He looked back towards the inside of the classroom, where Snape had been standing over by his desk, watching the entire altercation go down. Just as Kat began to get up and collect herself yet again, he turned back and added: “Filthy foreigner.” 

Kat began to stutter a response, when a deep and monotone voice overpowered the both of them. “Mr. Malfoy. I presume you do not speak to your mother with such language?” Draco looked confused, and flustered, but Snape continued, “Detention. For three nights. You are supposed to be the exemplary student of Slytherin. In fact, you may join Miss Thompson here while she serves out the rest of her detentions with me as well.” Draco looked as if he was going to utter a rebuttal, but Snape took notice and shut him up. “And 10 points from Slytherin.” 

As soon as Snape said this, Draco whipped his head back to Kat, who was still on the floor. His physical posture showed a pissed off and aggravated mood, but his eyes told a story of something different. Light.

“Get up.” 

“What- you’re not going to offer to help me?” Kat joked sarcastically, but was cut off when Draco surprisingly stuck his hand out to the Gryffindor on the ground. She was laughing slightly to ease the awkward tension, but he didn’t seem to find anything funny. Grabbing his hand, he pulled her up, and there was a slight moment of tension between the two. This was the closest they had ever been, and the energy was strange. Not bad, not good, but strange. They stood there, as if waiting for the other to say something, or someone to move away, but neither one did. 

Finally, a cough came from Snape on the other side of the room, and both of them immediately woke up from their fixation on each other, turned back to enter the classroom, and Kat added, “Well. This will be fun,” in a continued joking tone like usual.

Draco did not seem to find the amusement in this, and maintained his disgust, simply scoffed at her remark. 

Throughout the first hour of detention, Draco and Kat didn’t share so much as a single glance. It was as though they were two negative sides of a magnet, repelling each other so much that they couldn’t even see each other straight on. 

Entering hour 2 of detention, Snape had left the room after Filch had come panicking about dungbombs on the seventh floor, and both adults were whisked away. Before he left, he ordered the two students to complete a task for him. One that neither of them wanted to do.   
He had instructed the pair to go into Hogsmeade, since they both had permission, and stop by the ingredients shop because he was running low on Agrippa and Gnat heads, which were apparently in stock at the store. 

Kat was fully convinced the only reason he let them go was because it was Draco. If Snape could have any reason to not get in trouble with the Malfoys, he was going to take it. Lucius Malfoy had such a tight grip around Snape, that allowed Draco to get away with practically anything at school, so even his detentions were pleasant. 

The walk off the grounds and towards Hogsmeade was completely silent, and the two walked side by side, but 5 feet apart. They were both stiff, with their hands shoved deep into their pockets. Finally once they reached the town, Kat began looking around in awe. She had expected her first time there would have been with Eloise and their friends, minus Harry since he didn’t get his permission slip signed. But going with Draco wasn’t a bad second option. 

Once they reached the Potion Supply General, Draco stepped forward first and grabbed the door for her. Kat took a moment and stopped in her tracks, confused as to why he was being nice, but walked into the store without a word. They split up to look for the two ingredients they were sent for, but neither were very successful. Snape had left the room in such a hurry that they didn’t fully process what he was saying, and neither of them remembered exactly which ingredients they needed. 

Browsing the shelves in front of her, Kat had been staring at the hundreds of different ingredients on her aisle. But nothing seemed to spark her memory of what Snape asked for. She knew one of them started with an A, and the other had something to do with a bug because she was grossed out when he mentioned it. That was all she remembered though, much to hers and Draco’s demise. 

Still staring at all the rows of ingredients in front of her, she was fixated on the bottles of ashwinder egg on the shelf at her eye level. Suddenly, she felt a presence behind her, and a breath down her neck. 

Kat whipped her head around to see Draco standing in front of her, squished in the thin and tiny aisles full of foul smelling ingredients. 

“What do you wa-”

“I know you forgot what he asked us to get.” He said, almost triumphantly, before glancing past her at the shelves she had been staring at for the past five minutes. 

“I- no… I was just browsing for myself. I assumed you would get the two things since you’re Snape’s favorite.” 

“Oh really? Then what did we have to get?” Draco questioned,raising a brow, and glaring down into her eyes.

Kat’s words became jumbles, stuttering because while she didn’t remember, her ego was too big to be proven wrong by Draco Malfoy. Especially while they hate each other. 

They were staring into each other’s eyes, when suddenly Kat realized something.

“Oh my god… You don’t remember what we need to get!”

She burst into a fit of giggles, and broke their steady eye contact. Draco started mumbling, and his whole body showed his nerves. Kat looked up from her place, doubled over in laughter, and continued, “I knew it!”

Draco got defensive, pointing out, “You don’t remember either.” 

“Obviously! But neither of us do. I remember one of them started with an ‘a’, and the other was some gross bug.” 

Draco fidgeted slightly, almost finding it funny, but refusing to show that she made him laugh. There were a few moments of silence, before Draco was hit with an idea. 

“Why don’t we just ask the shop owner. I’m sure he could list off the common things Snape buys to trigger our memory.”

Kat nodded in agreement, “Once someone says it I’ll remember.”

They walked side by side up to the front of the store, where an old and weary wizard was writing something down on a list. Draco walked up to him quite pompously, and placed his hand down on the counter, expectantly. Kat slowed down as they got there, and waited a few steps behind. She was carefully watching him, how he sauntered up to the man as though he owned the place himself. 

Kat emitted a slight ‘hmph’ in annoyance, and Draco spun around to see her standing with her arms crossed and her hip slightly popped. The amount of sass she was projecting could have practically punched him in the face. He realized what she was annoyed with, and he became much more aware of his posture, and turned back towards the shopkeeper with a more kind manner. 

“Excuse me, we’re here to get a few things for Professor Snape at Hogwarts?” There was a slight sharp tone as usual in his voice, but it seemed a little lighter. He was trying to be kind. It wasn’t obvious, or working well, but Kat could tell he was trying. Draco wanted to seem inconspicuous, because he had a reputation to uphold, but she saw right through it. She was good at making up lies to get out of things, and even better at seeing right through them. 

The shopkeeper meekly looked up at Draco, who, even at 14, was taller than the man in front of him. “Ah yes… Severus was meaning to come for a few things. Let me think…” He turned around in his chair and began digging in a file cabinet behind him. Kat cleared her throat obviously to get Draco’s attention, and he spun on his heels to face her.

She had become more relaxed, due to his little attempt to be kind towards the man helping them. In the time they had entered the store, it had begun to rain outside. She nodded towards the window, where it had started to downpour. The rain was coming down like hail, with the patter against the street and windows extremely loud and thunderous. 

Draco turned to look towards the window, and furrowed his brow. “That’s ridiculous. It wasn’t supposed to rain today.”

Kat snorted, “Oh yeah? You predict the weather now?”

“Don’t be a prat. We have to get back to the castle somehow.” 

The shopkeeper had now turned back to the two, and Kat had stepped forward beside Draco. He was holding a little order sheet, and began, “Severus hasn’t gotten any refills on Belladonna, Rose oil, Agrippa,” he was cut off by Kat.

“Agrippa! That was one of the things we needed!” She exclaimed, as the keeper flicked his wand, and a jar of the ingredient appeared on the counter in front of them.

He continued, “He also should be needing refills soon for Ptolemy, Polypody, Iguana blood, Lobalug venom, and Gnat heads.”

Kat began a sentence, but was talked over by Draco, who proclaimed, “Yes, that’s the one. Just the Agrippa and the Gnat heads, please.” 

The bag of gross bug ingredients appeared also on the counter, and the shopkeeper tutted, “That’ll be 5 galleons and 3 sickles.” Draco panickedly turned to his side, down at Kat, digging in his pockets and flashing a single galleon at her. 

He mouthed the words, “I left my wallet back at school.”, and his eyes were wide with fear. If Draco was scared of anything, it was not having money. 

A lightbulb went off in Kat’s head, and cast a knowing look at him before turning her head back to the front. It was tilted slightly, and she took a small step back towards the door while speaking, “Well.. sir- why don’t you just put that on Severus’s tab…” She was taking slight steps towards the door, backing away every so slightly.

The store clerk was arguing defensively, “I don’t do tabs here. You need to pay.” He stood up, and began to walk around the counter, when Draco turned towards Kat panicking. 

She looked up at him, shrugged her shoulders, shouted, “Accio!” at the two ingredients, and nodded to the door at Draco. He threw the single galleon he had in his pockets on the counter, and bolted to the door. The shopkeeper was old and slow, but had made it around the counter and was now shouting at the two teens.

Kat got to the door, looked out at the pouring rain, and sighed, before making a dash for it. She shoved the door open, and turned halfway to grab Draco’s wrist. He was dragging his feet, looking nervously at the downpour happening outside. Draco was being yanked, and groaned, “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” and finally gave into Kat, violently pulling him, who began running as fast as possible through the rain. 

She let go of his wrist, and the two began speeding side by side through Hogsmeade. The rain still hadn’t ceased, and neither of them thought to try and charm to stop it. All they were thinking about was running away from the angry shopkeeper, and getting out of the rain. It seemed as though it would never stop, freezing and pounding the ground around and Hogwarts seemed much farther away than earlier. The ground had become slippery and gross, with their shoes becoming covered in mud and soaked by puddles. Every part of them was soaked through, from their hair to their socks. Kat’s nicely curled hair was now flat and dripping wet, sticking to the sides of her face and the back of her neck. Draco’s perfectly gelled locks were now a mess of dripping wet blondeness on his head. 

Finally making it out of Hogsmeade, they finally could see Hogwarts in the distance.

Kat turned to Draco with a mischievous grin, and practically demanded, “Race you to the awning.” Before taking off back to the castle.

Draco sped off with her, a new grin on his face as well. He was quite enjoying this time with the Gryffindor, strangely enough. The two raced towards the castle through the torrential downpour, and just as they made it to the awning over the entrance, Kat slipped and headed to the ground. Draco instinctively caught her arm, and stopped her from hitting the mud. 

“Careful.” He warned, as he pulled her up from her near miss. The two were standing merely inches from each other, with Draco crooning his neck slightly to look at her. Their breathing was heavy, with their chests rising and falling in rhythm from the exertion of running. Kat tilted her head up towards him, waiting for the tension to break. 

She was noticeably shivering from the rain, and Draco laughed a bit, “Still don’t know that hot air charm?” 

Kat shrugged her shoulders and giggled as he cast the charm over the both of them,and they were dry, but she was still shivering. Draco sighed, and began taking off his expensive black overcoat. 

“Draco what- no.” She put a hand up defensively to stop him, but he refused and draped the cloth over her shoulders, and she wrapped herself timidly in his coat. “Thank you.”

He shrugged, and looked down at the girl who was now warming up. She was no longer soaking wet, but her hair was no longer laying curled, but rather frizzy and chaotic from the charm. She still beamed with pride that their mission was successful, even if she had become a criminal because of it. 

Making their way through the castle, they got stuck on one of the staircases that decided to move while they were on it. 

Kat decided to make conversation, and propose a deal, “So… I need to get out of Friday’s detention.” 

Draco had been staring off into space, gripping tightly on the railing to not fall, making his arms flex tightly and pull at the fabric of his white school shirt. Jolted from his daydream, he muttered, “Why?” 

Kat twiddled her thumbs and began, “Well you see, it’s mine and Eloise’s birthday,” she looked up towards Draco, who was now intrigued, and continued, “And the Weasley twins-,” Draco scoffed in annoyance, but Kat preserved, “Ahem- they’re throwing us a party. So you can understand why I’d need to be present at my own party.” She looked up at him, and his face was contorted. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but had an idea. “Y’know… you’re welcome to drop in.”   
Draco obnoxiously laughed at this, “I am definitely not welcome to drop in at a Gryffindor party. Nice try.”

“It’s my party stupid. I get to decide who’s welcome.”

“Uh huh…” Draco wasn’t amused, and simply stood on the stairs, waiting for them to finish moving so they could finally go to dinner.

“You can come. Only if you want though.” Kat voiced her last argument, and the two went back to silence.

They dropped the ingredients off at the dungeons, but Snape still hadn’t returned, so they headed up to dinner which should have just been starting. Walking along together, it was calm. They weren’t throwing insults back and forth, and they had actually wound up enjoying their afternoon. Kat thought that this gave them some hope for the future, that they could actually get along. 

But that all came crashing down, as they walked through the corridor right by the Great Hall, when Kat realized that she was still wearing Draco’s jacket.

“Shit- fuck Draco here.” She pulled it off quickly, and held it out to the tall Slytherin.

He stopped in his tracks, looked down at the jacket being extended to him, and quickly grabbed it saying, “Oh- yeah.” He threw the jacket over his arm, not putting it back on.

The two were quiet, standing facing each other, so engulfed in the tension and silence that they didn’t notice the floating poltergeist above them, seeing the entire interaction. Peeves had seen Kat, the new Gryffindor, wearing Draco Malfoy’s jacket, coming late to dinner on a Wednesday evening. And he was beaming with glee from his newfound gossip. He just needed a little extra detail or proof. 

They finally broke the tension, when Kat turned towards the hall for dinner, which had started a good 15 minutes earlier. The two walked in, side by side, when Kat turned to Draco and waved before heading to her table. 

But suddenly, he spat at her with disgust. “Don’t wave at me. Filthy foreigner- We’re not friends.”

“Excuse me? When did I say we were friends? I was just taking the stick out my ass- seems like you can’t do the same.” Kat spat back, betrayed. She really thought today’s events meant something, but apparently not. 

“You’re a disgusting Gryffindor, blood-traitor, and thief.” Jaws dropped around the room. Everyone previously sitting eating their dinner was now staring at the scene that had entered the room. Dinner and a show.

“Don’t start with me Malfoy. I didn’t see you having any other ideas?”

Over at the Gryffindor table, tensions were high. They were all watching attentively, debating whether to intervene or wait. Eloise sat between Fred and Lee at dinner, and across from George, who were all staring at the scene ahead. She was clenching her fists, when Lee shouted at them, “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!” 

Fed joined in, “5 GALLEONS ON THOMPSON!”

Eloise looked at the two with disgust, and whacked them in the back of the head with both her hands, simultaneously. Lee and Fred groaned and rubbed the back of their heads, but knew they deserved it. Hermione, Ron, and Harry were sitting, looking rather anxious and concerned for their new friend. 

“Oh godric- bugger off whore.” Draco spat, aggressively.

Kat’s jaw dropped, because he had hit a nerve, and she exploded, “EXCUSE ME?!” and launched forward at the boy to throw a punch, when a new voice joined the altercation.

“Flipendo!”

Kat was thrown back, and slammed onto the floor 10 feet away. She hit her head as she crashed down, and Eloise ran to her side. She crouched down to her sister, and then tilted her head up at Draco, who was whispering to the person who threw the jinx. Pansy Parkinson.

He seemed angry, but pulled himself together when the hurried voice of Professor McGonagall entered the scene. “Children! I will not allow this brutality in the hall. Mr. Malfoy, 15 points from Slytherin, and Ms. Parkinson, 20 points from Slytherin for the jinx. Your head of house will decide your detentions.” She turned back towards the two sisters, and Kat had now sat up straight. “Ms. Thompson, are you alright?” 

Kat simply nodded, holding her throbbing head, and looked towards her sister with a sad face. They stood up slowly, and headed back to the Gryffindor table, where Lee had moved over to make room for them. 

A loud voice boomed over the hall, “While that was interesting, please return to your meals at once.” Everyone looked towards Dumbledore, who had stood from his seat at the teachers table, calmly. 

The whispers around them that evening grew louder and louder, rumors of what started the confrontation, why the two were walking in together 15 minutes late, and why on earth Pansy Parkinson got involved. Nevertheless, it was easy to say that their time at Hogwarts was anything but dull, and was not stopping anytime soon. 

That night in the common room, the twins shot evil and deadly glares at anyone who dared come near or whisper about Kat. The whole group didn’t ask her anything, despite the urge to. They knew she would tell them at some point, or at least mention it. They were protective of the Thompson twins, and eager to make sure that nothing else happened between that night, and their birthday. Their friends were dead set on making it a perfect day.

That waits to be seen.


	8. Parties, Problems, and Presents

Kat Thompson spent Wednesday night in the hospital wing, due to Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey’s overbearing need to make sure she didn’t have a concussion. She was given a sleeping draught after dinner, and knocked out for the rest of the night. 

Eloise paced back and forth in the hospital wing all evening until Madam Pomfrey forced her to go back to Gryffindor tower to try and get some sleep. She tossed and turned in her bed all night, and by 4am, wandered down to the common room to read.

Eloise loved classic literature, with Jane Austen sitting at the top of her list. She pulled out a battered and broken copy of Pride & Prejudice, just like the one she had at home in Seattle, and began reading. The fireplace was unlit, and she kept it that way, reading by the moonlight that shone through the windows of the tower. 

A few minutes passed, when the fireplace randomly roared to life, and someone else had wandered down to the common room. Eloise closed her book over slightly, turned to see who was joining her, and saw the tall and lanky ginger coming down from the stairs of the boys dorms, with his wand pointed towards the fireplace. 

“Oh- uh… sorry Eloise. I thought no one would be up.” Fred whispered, keeping his voice down.

“Couldn’t sleep.” 

Fred nodded in understanding, and walked slowly towards where she was sitting on the couch. “Mind if I join you?”

Eloise simply nodded, and held her hand out, beckoning him to sit. She glanced up at the fireplace, and felt the soothing warmth it radiated, before reopening her book and beginning to read again. 

Eloise had read Pride & Prejudice a million times, but it always stayed her forever favorite. The slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, how it never changes and they always end up together. How everything he did was for her, even when she didn’t know it. They always fell in love with each other, while thinking the other hated them. It was beautiful, and something she could always rely on and come back to. 

Her reading was interrupted, when Fred spoke softly.

“Do you mind being called Elle? Or Ellie?” 

She let out a soft giggle, before answering, “I don’t mind at all.”

“Okay then, Elle,” he made a point to enunciate when he said her new nickname, “whatcha’ readin?” He nodded towards her battered book, full of annotations.

“Oh- it’s my favorite book. It’s by a muggle author, her name’s Jane Austen. Pride & Prejudice.”

He slowly tilted his head down towards the book in her hands, and began again, “What’s it about? And why on earth does it look so destroyed?”

Ellie laughed, looking down at her book and examining it. Somehow when she reached into her trunk, it was the same exact copy from the one she had at home; all the same annotations, little notes, highlighted parts, and even the same cracks in the spine and little tears on the front and back cover. She would bring it with her everywhere. Until now, Eloise hadn’t really taken a moment to look at how much damage it had. She ought to get a new copy, but where would she get a muggle book in the wizarding world?  
She snickered, and glanced up at him, explaining, “I carry it with me most places, and it’s full of little notes and markings. I keep meaning to get a nice copy for myself but this one has always just been there.”

He nodded in understanding, not taking his eyes off the book yet. The two drifted back into silence, with Fred staring off into space, and Eloise mindlessly reading. She started to feel the tiredness rush over her body again, and her head fell onto Fred’s shoulder. Eloise fought against the urge to close her eyes, but the heaviness won out. Fred’s face was burning red from the moment her head hit his shoulder, but once she fell asleep he was calm. He pulled a blanket off the back of the couch, draping it over both of them, and let himself succumb to the pulls of sleep as well. 

~~~

Hermione was the first to enter the common room in the morning, and the sight was one to be seen. Eloise was curled up against Fred on the couch, with their pinkies touching. Fred’s head was bobbed back on the couch, with his mouth wide open while snoring. They fit perfectly against one another, with Elle hugging his side comfortably. Hermione quietly walked over to the two, and snagged a quick look at the whole picture before poking at Eloise and Fred. A few more Gryffindor stragglers were coming down to the common room, so she got them up before it became a big deal. 

Eloise ran to get changed into her uniform and grab her books for the day, and spent all of breakfast in the Hospital wing with her sister. Kat was more than fine, but Madam Pomfrey made her stay over just in case she had a concussion or anything. After a quick painkiller and a heavy sleep, she was back to her normal, spunky self. Eloise had brought her a change of uniform and her books, so she could go straight to lessons that morning. On the way out, the two girls were whispering back and forth at a million miles an hour.

“I fell asleep on Fred’s shoulder last night! And Hermione found us this morning!” Eloise exclaimed, looking very embarrassed, leaning into Kat's shoulder as they rounded the corner to the Great Hall. 

“No you didn’t- did anything happen?” 

Elle playfully smacked her shoulder, “No! I couldn’t sleep, so I was reading on the couch when he wandered downstairs too. I guess I just fell asleep at some point.”

Kat stared at her for a moment longer, then realized something. “Wait! The twins still have the marauders map right now… that means he might’ve known you were there! Maybe Freddie-boy is now a lover-boy…” She teased, making Eloise blush red. 

“I doubt that… but maybe-” She fell into thought, as they continued on. 

At breakfast, the two jogged in just to grab a roll or some toast since they were running so late, but Hermione had other plans. She jokingly asked Eloise about her “late night” with Fred, making Ron spit out his water, and Harry turned beet red. Elle panicked, and had to reassure the boys that nothing happened, and Hermione was just joking. A very intense elbow jab was sent her way after that one.

The rest of the day went by fast, with the main focus being on party prep. Eloise was never really big on birthdays, not a fan of the attention, but Kat loved it. The presents, the attention, the cake, and especially the party. All Eloise wanted was her family and friends to be happy. 

That evening, the twins went straight to bed after being ushered out of the common room by their friends. 

George was yelling, “Get out! We have to prepare for-- things!” 

Everyone laughed at this, since he was acting like they didn’t already know about their insane party plans. Hermione joined them, and Lavender as well. The girls all sat at the end of their beds reminiscing on past birthdays, and just chatting getting to know each other. Lavender was quite bearable in fact, and they all got along well. It was obvious that Hermione didn’t like her, but she was talented at concealing it and being polite. 

They all went to bed around 11, and while Eloise, Hermione, and Lavender were peacefully asleep, Kat was tossing and turning. 

Her mind was running, thinking about how Draco and her had an amazing time when they were in Hogsmeade, the laughs they shared, how he gave her his coat when she was freezing, the silly and not nasty banter over the drying charm, it was all so fun. Yet not even a minute after they were smiling silly at one another, he called her a whore and a thief in front of the whole school. Was it even worth it to try and change him or be with him? A single tear fell off the side of her face before closing her eyes and drifting into a deep sleep. Tomorrow was a new day, and a big one at that. Her and Eloise’s fifteenth birthday. 

~~~  
The Thompson twins had no clue how much chaos and excitement their birthday would ensue, and it started the moment they woke up. 

Early in the morning, Kat shot straight up to the sounds of poppers and firecrackers in their dorm, and saw Harry, Ron, Hermione, George, Lee, and Oliver standing around their two beds with the biggest smiles on their faces. Fred was missing from the group, but that went unnoticed for now. 

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” They all shouted together, beaming with pride over their accomplishment and surprise, until a loud groan was heard from the lump that was Eloise. 

“What in the fuck are you doing-” she began, rolling over and picking her head up ever so slightly, “Being this loud in the morning on my birthday.” There was a scary sharpness to her tone, and even Lee looked spooked.

Oliver’s eyes were bulging out of his head at Eloise’s newfound bitchiness, and he glanced over to Kat with a quizzical look. 

“You may find it hard to believe, but Eloise is in fact the bitch in the mornings. We call it the personality swap.” Kat stated, quite pointedly.

Everyone let out a slight laugh, but was cut off by the groaning lump yet again, “I am not a bitch. I am just not a morning person.” 

Kat got up slowly, and walked over to her sister's bed, patting her slowly and sarcastically, “Sure you are… Yeah- OW!” Eloise had finally gotten out from her tornado of a bed, and whacked Kat right in the face. 

“Good morning to you too, birthday girl” Oliver mumbled.

The entire group laughed, now that Eloise was somewhat awake and moving, there were lots of birthday events to coordinate. After a few minutes of birthday wishes and laughs, Eloise stopped in her tracks and stared at the boys in the room. 

“How the fuck did you get up here?”

Hermione held up a knowing hand, stopping her from continuing. “Actually, that was all my doing. I figured out how to levitate them all up the stairs so it didn’t turn into the slide.” 

“Huh. Smart.” Eloise looked around the room, and finally realized who was missing. “Where’s Fred?”

George and Lee shrugged, and Lee piped up, “Never came to bed last night, and he was out cold when I woke up this morning. Must not have been able to sleep or something.”

Eloise’s smile dimmed slightly, and began wondering why Fred would miss out on the celebrations. Maybe there wasn’t as much of a connection there as she had thought. Nevertheless, she continued getting prepared and waking up for the big day. 

Twenty minutes passed, and the girls had gotten dressed and ready for breakfast, running around the room, in and out of the bathroom so that no one had to leave the dorm and they could all hang out. Everyone quite enjoyed watching hurricane Eloise run around like a chicken with her head cut off getting ready, and now sympathized deeply with Kat, who was always the one responsible for her sister in the morning. None of them could have really understood what she meant when she said Elle was not a morning person. Hermione had learnt a new charm to do hair, and tried it out on herself first before doing the twins, and it worked exactly how she wanted. Eloise had hers done all nice and straight, laying perfectly on her shoulders, with the front pieces pinned back to frame her face, and Kat’s was curled like something out of a Vogue Magazine. They looked like the most beautiful girls in the castle, picturesque for their fifteenth birthday. 

On her way towards the door, Eloise threw her untied tie around her neck and hoped Fred would be the one at breakfast to do it. She could have asked someone else in the room, but was planning to get a chance to talk to him. Eloise was dying to know why he didn’t go to bed last night, or why he didn’t come with the group to their dorm this morning. Maybe he and Angelina were already seeing each other. That wouldn’t be too far off, since they supposedly go to the Yule Ball together the next year, but Eloise hoped that she would change that. She guessed that he was just not connecting with her as much as she thought.

Hermione was leading the pack out of the dorm, and she had forgotten that the stairs turned to a slide as soon as any guy stepped on them- so when Lee followed her out, they all shot down the stairs and landed in a heap of groans and giggles at the bottom. It turned into a game for everyone, taking the slide down the stairs, Eloise and Kat enjoying it the most, using it like a dramatic entrance for the birthday girls. The two received lots of more birthday wishes in the common room, and as they exited Gryffindor tower, the paintings had been bewitched to sing ‘Happy Birthday’. Elle was blushing mad with embarrassment, but Kat was living in the moment and loving every second. George took credit for that spell, and said Fred also helped in figuring out how to make that one work, but he was still MIA. The commotion around them should normally have distracted Eloise from thinking about where Fred was, but she couldn’t take her mind off it. 

Kat must’ve noticed, because she placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, leaned in, and whispered, “I’m sure he’ll be here. Stop worrying.” 

This got her to relax a little, and right as the entire school was singing Happy Birthday to the girls during breakfast, Fred finally showed up. Dumbledore had even joined in, booming over everyone else and taking over conducting the serenade from Lee Jordan, who had stood up on the table to conduct. Practically everyone was singing for the girls, minus the Slytherins. Kat was glaring at Draco from her seat, burning a hole in the back of his head with her eyes. 

Fred hobbled over to the Gryffindor table, looking absolutely exhausted. The bags under his eyes were dark and deep, and his hair was a mess. His tie was tied, but sat crooked on his neck, and he seemed as though he could fall asleep standing up. 

Eloise peered up at him, just as he was about to sit down across the table from her. “Where were you?” 

He groggily answered, “Asleep.” 

“Oh.” Eloise spat, aggressively grabbing another scoop of scrambled eggs from in front of them and throwing it onto her plate.

Everyone around them realized the tension building between the two students, especially the birthday girl taking her anger out on her breakfast, and it quieted down. George jabbed Fred violently in the side, causing him to spit out his water, and pull himself together. 

“Uh- Happy Birthday!” He forced out a smile, and George rolled his eyes at the poor attempt. Eloise’s shoulders dropped in disappointment, and Fred’s smile drooped as well. “Look, Elle, I’m sorry I’m just really tired. You’ll understand later.” 

Eloise couldn’t help but be annoyed, but she managed to push it out of her mind for the rest of the day. Quidditch practice had been cancelled by Oliver, after lots of grovelling and begging from the twins and Eloise. 

In between History of Magic and Charms, Eloise and Kat were walking down the stairs, when a boy in green robes stopped Kat by placing a hand on her arm. 

“Hey- uh, Happy Birthday. It’s Katie right?” The boy guessed, and Kat shrunk away from his uninvited touch.

“Thanks, and yeah… but I mostly go by Kat. What’s your name?” 

“Adrian. Adrian Pucey.” He boasted as though this was supposed to mean something to her, but Kat just looked unamused.

“Nice to meet you- Adrian.” Kat said hesitatingly, readjusting her bag on her shoulder, while sending a quick ‘help’ glance towards Eloise with raised brows.

Her sister reached out and finally came to save the day, “It was nice to meet you Adrian, but we have to get to class.”

Adrian’s face contorted, turning towards Eloise, and he spat: 

“I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to the beautiful birthday girl.” 

Eloise looked disgusted, extremely offended, and genuinely hurt at his remark. Kat piped up, “Well now you’re not talking to anyone, asshole.” She grabbed Elle’s arm to pull her in the other direction towards their class, and just as they were getting out of Adrians sight, she spun around and with both her middle fingers pointed up at the Slytherin boy, yelled, “Have a nice day!” 

They were serenaded yet again during lunch and dinner, with different conductors each time. Both girls managed to put the Adrian situation out of their head for the rest of the day, because better and bigger things were coming. The entire school was wishing them happy birthday all day, and even a few of the nicer Slytherins gave a quick nod in their direction. During dinner, Kat received a small nod from Draco himself, though it was during a strategized moment when no one was looking. It made her entire evening. 

~~~

After their last class of the day, Eloise was off to the dorms with Hermione, while the rest of their friends got the common room ready for the party. Kat waved her friends and sister goodbye and headed towards the dungeons, with her mind racing with the different ideas of getting out of detention.

She had debated putting a glamour on one of the ghosts or ghouls and leaving it in the Potions room, but Snape wasn’t that stupid. The next thought was polyjuice and recruiting a first year who wanted friends, but that was cruel and there wasn’t enough time to whip up a batch. So, she was left to improvise. It was her strong suit after all.

The entire descent down to the dungeons was filled with more pats on the back, and little well wishes from portraits on the wall, students, and even Professor Flitwick shouted a “Happy Birthday Miss Thompson!” from a stairwell below her. 

Pushing through the crowds, Kat finally arrived at the lowest level of the castle. She had to fight through multiple Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws trying to get an invite to the party, and even had to convince a sixth year badger that she wasn’t Kat Thompson and didn’t know the password for the party.

The twins were employing a double-verification system to get into the party. First- the Fat Lady had changed the password to the common room especially for tonight, “Elegance”, and then Lee Jordan was going to be inside with a guest list/permitted students, checking they either knew someone or were already invited. It had become a huge hassle, since Ron and Harry had apparently overheard some students in Slytherin hoping to sneak in, so the planners were taking extra precautions. They wanted everything to be perfect for the new girls.

Kat confidently strode right into the classroom, but found it was empty. “Hello?”

She took a few more steps inward, until the classroom door behind her swung open. Spinning on her heels, Kat turned to see Professor Snape, panting. 

“Detention- cancelled. There has been an incident in Slytherin house I must deal with. You will continue your detention sentence on Monday.” 

Snape seemed winded trying to get his sentence out, but before he could even finish, Kat was out the door and running to Gryffindor tower. Her plan- or lack thereof- was not needed! She was bounding up to the portrait as fast as her legs could take her. 

Kat’s original idea was that she would sneak out, get to the party as soon as possible, and sneak upstairs to her dorm and change into her nicer outfit at the easiest time. But now, she could simply enjoy the time getting ready with Hermione and Eloise, without a care in the world. 

Kat ran straight into the common room and didn’t even register the shouts from everyone decorating that she had to get out, she bolted straight up to the dorm and threw the door open.

“NO DETENTION!” 

Kat shouted, sauntering in the room with her hands in the air, startling Eloise who was sitting in front of the vanity doing her mascara, and Hermione, who was busy re-charming her hair to sit pinned back.

“Jeez- a little warning before you shatter my eardrums.” Elle mumbled, rolling her eyes and placing her two hands dramatically over her ears.

“Oh shut it- I’m just too excited!” Kat leapt over to her bed, and began digging through her trunk for her clothes.

Eloise and Kat had planned out the most perfect outfits for their party, each to their own liking and comfort level. Elle had picked a pair of regular baggy blue mom jeans, ripped at the knees with a tight black tank top to match her usual black high-top converse. Kat was set on standing out, with a tight body-con black spaghetti-strap dress with a white turtleneck underneath. She paired it with her black doc marten boots, which were a staple for her wardrobe. The two girls were the picture of beauty, standing side-by-side, beaming for the excitement that was to follow. While they looked drastically different, they both felt equally confident and in love with their outfits. Kat’s dress hugged every one of her curves, and Eloise’s basic outfit made her huge smile stand out. 

Kat was partial to gold jewelry, with a small sun necklace around her neck and matching gold hoops for the evening, and Elle was the silver girl. She had her usual silver moon necklace, to match the one Kat had, along with her ear full of studs. 4 holes along her ear lobes, with one cartilage on her right side. Both Thompson twins were similarly different, fitting together like a puzzle and matching the other perfectly. One liked gold, the other liked silver, but they still wore matching sun and moon necklaces. One liked tight clothes, the other liked baggy, but they still managed to match or coordinate, and never push the other to wear something they were uncomfortable in. 

There was a much deeper meaning to their sun and moon necklaces, but that’s for another day… For now, it’s birthday party time.

~~~

The celebration was set to begin at 7pm, but students began filtering into the common room around 6:30. There was a mixture of houses, all enjoying the beverages the twins were able to summon from the kitchens, everyone but Slytherin. Normally, there’s a list of the Slytherins that are allowed to events like these, and while it was very short, the ones on it weren’t all that bad. But this night, they were completely banned because of the competitive game set for tomorrow. 

That was the other issue. Oliver had forbidden any *fun* drinks from being served, so Fred and George recruited Hermione to bewitch his cup. If he takes any of the punch, it will taste completely normal to him, even though they spiked it. This goes for any younger students as well. They may be irresponsible, but the Weasley boys weren’t stupid. A special version of their hit drink, known as Weasley Wickedness, full of Firewhiskey and Fruit punch, was concocted just for this party. 

The common room was packed wall to wall full of students, cups in hand, swaying and singing along to the music on the boombox. Eloise had taught Fred how to use it, and then he charmed it to self-change the CD. Currently, there was a record full of Queen playing, with the muggle-born and halfblood students leading the charge of singing and dancing. Most of the purebloods were enjoying the new music, but certainly confounded by the strangeness of the tunes. 

Eloise and Kat were walking hand-in-hand down the stairs, and just as they came into view of the partiers already in the room, there was a loud and joyous boom of voices:

“SURPRISE!”

The girls wore the biggest grins on their faces, and while this was anything but a surprise, the little pile of presents on the table was a shock.

Kat was beaming, but Eloise spoke up. “You guys didn’t have to get us anything-”

Her sister cut her off, laughing, “-but it is most appreciated.” Her remark earned a raucous howl from the room. 

Fred and George opened their arms for the two girls, welcoming them into the center of the room, and Fred seemed much more awake. His eyes twinkled at the sight of Elle’s beauty, shining even brighter with the layer of confidence she was wearing from the joy of their day. He slipped his arms around her shoulder, guiding her into the room. 

Fred leaned down to her eye level, lifted his wand, and pointed to the CD player across the room. Eloise’s face contorted with confusion, until the beginning chords of “Bohemian Rhapsody” began to play, and her face lit up. He sent her a cocky wink, and held out his hand, which she grabbed quite enthusiastically, before leading her onto the makeshift dance floor.

“You… you look—” Fred began, his face beet red because of how close the two were, dancing in the center of the room.

“Yes?” Eloise tilted her head back to look up at him, and saw his flustered expression.

“Beautiful.”

She smiled wide and blushed crimson, before immersing herself back in the dancing and music, swaying back and forth with Fred. 

Kat grabbed George’s arm, and dragged him onto the dance floor as well. With Fred and Elle getting along so well, Kat had naturally become good friends with George. He seemed quite close with Lee, so she wasn’t worried about anything getting complicated. That’s not for her to worry about, because if her suspicions are correct, they’ll tell her at some point. 

Pulling herself out of thought, she became privy to a scene unfolding on the dance floor. Kat glanced over George’s shoulder to see Eloise and Fred dancing quite close. Her arms were thrown around his shoulders, and Fred was leaning down with his arms around her lower back. They were swaying with the music together, lost in each other's eyes. The image itself seemed as though it was plucked from an art museum, in the wing all by itself for crowds to stand back and admire its beauty.

3 and a half hours and 4 glasses of Weasley Wickedness into the party, Kat and Eloise were tearing up the dance floor. A majority of the students from other houses had left to try and sneak back into their own respective common rooms, and a lot of the younger students had gone to bed, so there was even more room for them to dance. Kat was having the time of her life, as spunky and energetic as usual, and Elle’s confidence was increased tenfold. The girl who was normally a beam of positivity, but slightly reserved, had let go of all her inhibitions. The third David Bowie song was blasting, and the twin sisters had moved to dancing with each other, drinks swooshing to the beat in their unsteady hands.

In a moment of confidence, whether it be the Firewhiskey in their system or her birthday, she pulled away from her sister and made her way over to the tall redhead leaning against the back of the couch. Whether she was aware of it or not, he already knew she was coming, since he couldn’t take his eyes off of her all evening. 

“Care for another-” Ellie began, before a loud and high-pitched hiccup interrupted her proposal, “dance?” She squeaked out, smiling silly up at him, with her hand stuck out in front of her.

“With the birthday girl?” He grinned, “Why I would be honored.” 

Fred stood up straight and grabbed her hand, allowing the pretty tipsy girl to pull him onto the dance floor. Everyone around them was drunk, swaying with the music and singing along to ‘Heroes’ by David Bowie. 

Over the blaring song, Fred posed a question. 

“What time do you turn 15?”

“WHAT?”

Fred sighed, laughing at her lack of understanding before leaning in to whisper in her ear. “I said-,” he began, pushing the front pieces of her hair behind her glimmering earrings, “What time were you born?”

Eloise may have been drunk, but not that drunk. Her cheeks were burning red from their closeness, and she was amazed at how attractive such a mundane question could be. She turned towards his ear and whispered right back:

“I was born at 11:24pm. Kat was born three minutes later at 11:27.”

Fred pulled away, and looked around until his eyes settled on the grandfather clock across the room. “That’s ten minutes from now.”

The two went back to mindlessly moving with the beat of the song, eyes locked and unmoving. The room was mostly full of their friends now, with Angelina, Alicia, and Katie Bell sitting on the couches with drinks in hand, Hermione, Harry, Kat, and Ron were dancing around and trying to get Percy to shut up about the mess and take a shot. George and Lee were dancing on the other side of the floor, without a care in the world. A few stragglers were enjoying each other’s company around the maroon and gold decorated space.

Three songs later, Fred and Eloise were dancing closer than ever. ‘Just the Two of Us’ By Grover Washington was playing, but acted more as background noise for the ever growing volume of tension between them. Elle’s arms were hooked around his neck, practically on her tippy-toes to do so, and his hands had moved from sitting around her back to grabbing her waist. 

The world could have been ending around them, and Fred and Eloise would never have noticed. The only thing that mattered or existed was each other. Eloise was still somehow unsure of how he felt, and the tension growing did not help. Their cheeks were on fire from the heat of the room and the feeling of their bodies against each other. Elle’s arms felt as though they would melt off of his neck from the amount of nerves coursing through her veins, and Fred’s hands were holding onto her waist with a desire to pull her in right then and there and kiss her till the sun rose.

Suddenly, he cast a quick glance at the clock, and noticed that it was 11:24.

“Elle- Happy Birthday.” He leaned away just enough to look down at her, and saw the brightest smile on her face a mile wide. This was the moment. He was going to start her fifteenth year on this planet off right, with an action like no other. She had to like him as well, they were practically glued to one another all night. Both of them were drunk, and he remembered Oliver mentioning one time about a muggle saying, “Drunk words are sober thoughts.” He wanted- no, needed her to know his sober thoughts.

The lights around them seemed to dim at this exact moment, with two cheesy grins plastered on their faces. Fred began slowly to lean in, thinking only how badly he wanted her. How badly he wanted to know if she felt the same. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off of her since the second she blew past him on the train. 

But then, her expression changed. The beaming smile that had been there all night dropped and disappeared from her face faster than she rode a broom. Eloise was frozen, staring with the most blank and empty face in the room. He pulled away, and began spinning around the room to see what was wrong, and when he couldn’t figure it out, he turned for his brother.

“Where’s George?” 

“Mate- I’m right here.” George said from behind them, and Fred turned to see Lee standing with him, cup in hand.

Fred’s mouth dropped to the floor, and pointed at Lee. “If you’re here-,” He began, before turning to the door, “Then who’s guarding the-”

The world stopped. The music blaring was drowned out by the realization of who had entered the room. Or- who had now left, with Kat following suit.

A flash of blonde was seen before the boys all uttered in unison:

“Malfoy.”

Fred and George’s hands immediately formed into fists by their side, but then Fred stepped back over to where Elle still stood, stuck to the ground. “Don’t worry about him. He’s not going to ruin tonight, George and I will handle it.” He placed his hand on her shoulder in comfort, and she immediately relaxed at his touch.

Eloise was a little too tipsy to handle any sort of confrontation, since she could barely do so when she was sober. Fred let go of her, and marched out of the common room with George in tow. 

Outside, Kat was standing up on the landing from the common room, staring down at Draco, who was two steps below her. 

“Happy Birthday.” He muttered, without so much as looking up.

There was a small, rectangular shaped gift in his hand, wrapped elegantly with black paper, and a red ribbon bow. Kat, who was considerably more drunk than her sister, had to lean on the railing for support. She never got sloppy drunk, but she was not her normal, witty self. A remark on average that would take a millisecond to get out, was now going to take a considerable amount of time.

Kat’s eyes darted down to his hands, and noticed the package. “For me?” 

“No. For Eloise.” He spat back sarcastically, seemingly growing annoyed by her lack of togetherness. 

“I’m kidding,” Kat began, realizing his change in attitude, and pulling herself together more, “Thank you for coming- and the gift.” She smiled, “I’m certain Eloise will love whatever you picked out.”

Draco’s lip pulled slightly at her joke, and he reached out with the gift in hand. “It’s for you. Happy Birthday.”

Kat smiled wide, and grabbed it from him. Their fingers touched for a sliver of a second, and she felt a shock through her body at his cold temperature. Without allowing herself to falter, she turned back to him as he began to speak.

“I should probably get out of here, I know they’ll be missing you, and will certainly not be happy to see me.” 

Kat shook her head a bit too violently at his words, “No- come in! The twins made the best-,” Kat‘s hand slipped off the railing where she was supporting herself, and she stumbled forwards. Draco grabbed her shoulders and took a step up towards her to avoid her falling down the stairs and taking him with her. 

At this exact moment, Fred and George stormed out of the portrait hole with their wands in hand.

“Malfoy. Get your slimy hands off of-” George began, before Draco responded with a sharp and defensive tone.

“Weasley. Relax, I came by to wish her a happy birthday, nothing more.”

Fred stepped towards him, wand still high. “Oh really? It looks to me like you’ve already got your hands on the drunk girl to take advantage of tonight.”

Draco’s mouth dropped, and he looked extremely offended by his claim. “She was about to fall. I’m not an arse.”

Fred disregarded his comment, and pushed again. “Take. Your. Hands. Off.”

Kat had steadied herself yet again, and this time was turned towards the twins. “Relax Fred-” She began, before being interrupted by a loud hiccup, “Or George?” Her head rapidly went between both twins, and then shrugged. “Whatever. He wished me a happy birthday. That’s all. Now can I please go back inside and have some more of that punch.” 

Draco’s brows furrowed at the twins. “Do not let her have anything else to drink.”

George crossed his arms across his chest aggressively, “As if you care?”

Fred was the same way, “Are you not the guy who called her a whore in front of the entire school yesterday?”

Kat turned around at this comment, and looked towards Draco expectantly. He just scoffed, before turning to leave. Kat hoped more than anything in the world that he would say something- anything. That he didn’t mean what he said the other day, but he didn’t. He said nothing. He turned away, and said absolutely nothing. 

“I wish we never had detention together Malfoy.” Kat’s eyes were filled with tears, right about to break. “Fuck you.” Draco turned around and his face was stoic, but his eyes were hurt. She hit him exactly where she wanted to. 

“Fuck you Thompson.” He spat right back.

Kat’s drunkenness was back in full swing, and the tears had fallen down her face, leaving a stain through her makeup. She giggled at him, and at what she was about to say.

“Ferret-boy!”

Her remark left everyone confused, while she was cackling loud and fervently at her own words, but everyone else internally blamed it on her alcohol. Sadly, and quite unfortunately for her and her sister, those events had not happened yet.

Fred and George grabbed her under her arms, and pulled Kat back into the portrait hole. She was kicking and pointing at the Slytherin who was sauntering away from them, back turned and rushed.

The door to the common room was propped open, and once the twins put Kat down, they noticed the other sister, sitting on the floor listening in to their entire conversation.

Fred leaned down, and tapped her lightly. 

“Elle?”

Nothing. She was out cold.

Fred chuckled at the birthday girl, and laughed to himself about how poorly this evening went at the end. They were so close to a moment, and he really thought that it was the perfect night. But here he was, carrying Eloise up the stairs to her dorm, with nothing different between the two. 

After the levitating events from that morning, Hermione had figured out a spell to reverse the slide-charm on the stairs, so he was able to bring Elle up without an issue. She mumbled and grumbled in her sleep, and the rest of the stirring group just laughed at her. He got her into bed, and even managed to charm her pajamas on. 

Hermione stood back, sober as all hell, watching the lover-boy put the very drunk Eloise into bed kindly. He was absolutely smitten. 

Kat on the other hand, had three rolls of bread sitting in front of her, and one in each hand. Her makeup was smearing, and mascara running from her tipsy tears. George had followed them up to make sure everyone was all good, and he noticed the only awake Thompson twin first.

“Where the fuck did you get rolls from?”

Kat shrugged, and went back to stuffing her face full of the carbs. The boys returned to their respective dorms, and the girls room quieted down quickly. Hermione and Kat drifted off to sleep, and Eloise was out like a light. And to imagine that this was the calm before the storm. They didn’t even know that what happened that night was just the beginning, and barely scratched the surface of the drama to come from their arrival at Hogwarts. 

~~~

The next morning was set for the Gryffindor versus Slytherin quidditch game, but when Eloise and Kat awoke, it was because the voice of Oliver Wood could be heard screaming down in the common room. Elle stayed in bed, and sent her sister to figure out what was happening.

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME? IT’S JUST RAINING. WE ALWAYS PLAY IN THE RAIN!” 

Oliver’s voice boomed over anyone trying to reason with him, and when Kat finally stepped up next to Hermione, she leaned in and whispered.

“What’s the problem?”

Hermione turned towards Kat, and even she looked aggravated. “It’s absolutely ridiculous! Slytherin didn’t want to play in the rain so now we’re playing Hufflepuff.”

The newest Gryffindor’s hand flew to her mouth, because while she was not a fan of sports or any sort of athletics, she knew how hard Oliver had been training them to be finely tuned to Slytherin’s plays and strategies. The team had barely started going over the other houses' techniques, since their next game wasn’t for two weeks. 

Kat snatched Hermione’s hand and ran upstairs to their dorm. She burst into the room and scared Eloise, who was still in a heap on the bed. 

“You’re playing Hufflepuff today!” 

Elle sat straight up, and all the color drained from her face. If anyone thought the poor girl was scared for the tryouts, that was nothing compared to what she was feeling right now. Everything they had prepared for, going over exact plays, strategies, and counter-plays were for nothing, since they aren’t even playing the right team. 

“Why?!” She exclaimed, still sat in shock.

Hermione cut her off, and emphasized, “Well Slytherin doesn’t want to play in the rain.”

“Probably just scared of the new chaser.” Kat wiggled her eyebrows at her sister, realizing that she was becoming more paralyzed by her fear with every passing second. Suddenly, Kat had an idea. “Why don’t we open presents! We uh-,” She stopped for a second, remembering the ending of last night's birthday party, “We never wound up opening them yesterday.”

Hermione clasped her hands together, and tutted, “Perfect idea. I’ll get the boys to bring them up. I think they’re still on the table downstairs.” 

Eloise rubbed her eyes, still struggling to function with the combination of a nasty hangover and her normal inability to move in the mornings. She went to grab a glass of water off her nightstand when she noticed a wrapped gift on Kat’s. 

“Hey- who’s that from? Looks fancy.”

Kat whipped around and grabbed the gift before Elle could touch it.

“Uh- no one. I saw it last night and brought it upstairs… I’ll open it later.”

Luckily Eloise was too groggy to comprehend how obvious it was that Kat was hiding the gift from Draco, and she didn’t even see her shove it under her pillow. 

The boys and Hermione all entered their dorm, gifts in hand. There were an assortment of things opened, from new quills, chocolate frogs, dungbombs for Eloise from George and Lee, and some socks. Very low-key, and simple, but the two girls almost broke into tears from the kindness of their new friends to even get them anything for their birthday. 

Kat began to get up and clean the wrapping paper, assuming all the presents were done, but then Fred cleared his throat. 

“I- erm… I have a gift for you Eloise, but I’ll give it to you a little later.”

His hands were behind his back, and he was swaying back and forth nervously. Ron and Harry couldn’t help but laugh at the normally confident boy’s new nerves. This had become a pattern for the past week, it took a few moments for the two to get comfortable and push their nerves aside. From anyone watching, they seemed like the perfect pairing, but to them, Fred and Eloise couldn’t be more unsure about the others' feelings.

~~~

An hour before the big game was set to start, Eloise was pacing in the common room. The entire team had left to go to the locker room, and she was alone with her thoughts.

The portrait hole opened up, and in stepped no one other than Fred Weasley. 

“Hey… you ready?”

Eloise looked up at him, worry and nerves obvious in her eyes. “Not really.”

“Hold on- I have the thing to cheer you up.” 

Fred walked over to the gift table from last night, where there was just one lonesome little present. He picked it up and wandered back over to Eloise, and she was finally able to get a good look at it. Light green wrapping paper with navy blue ribbon, but absolutely horribly wrapped. There seemed to be more tape on the present than wrapping paper, crinkled and messy, but wrapped with care. Fred hesitantly held the present out, without looking up at Eloise. 

Had he looked up, he would’ve seen the girl beaming wider than ever. The messy wrapping paper was even better than regular neat wrapping because it showed how much he cared. She carefully grabbed the present out of his hands, and he finally glanced up at her. Noticing her smile, his grew as well. 

Elle looked back down to the present, and began ripping the paper off. It wasn’t until it was all gone that she realized what it was. 

A brand-new copy of Pride & Prejudice.

“Where did you find one?!” She exclaimed, staring at the book and smoothing over the soft and delicate cover with her hands, with the biggest and brightest smile stretching across her expression.

“That’s a secret. Open it!” Fred beckoned.

Eloise slowly opened the front cover of the book, and there was a small note on the inside cover in Fred’s chicken scratch handwriting:

Dear Eloise.

Happy Birthday. I hope that someday you find the Mr. Darcy to your Elizabeth Bennet. And I think I understand why you love this book so much, that rat Mr. Collins sounds like Snape. Funny guy. Mr. Darcy is even funnier. You remind me a lot of Elizabeth Bennet. Spunky, but kind. Free spirited, but driven. I’m so happy you moved to Hogwarts, and I can’t imagine the chaos in these halls without you now. I liked Mr. Bingley too. Him and Jane were adorable. Soulmates. The way he took care of her when she was sick? Even I couldn’t put the book down. Happy Birthday Elle.

Perhaps one day we’ll run in the rain together like Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth in this book.

Fred

Eloise’s eyes were already full of tears from the new and fresh copy of her favorite book in her hands, but then it hit her. In two days since she told him about the book, he got his hands on a brand new copy just for her, AND read it. He knew about Mr. Darcy, and Elizabeth, and Mr. Collins, and even about her favorite scene. Her heart swelled ten times the size, warming at the thought of how sweet of a gift this was, and how cute the note was. She was too happy to start overthinking the fact that he began to write ‘Love Fred’ but then crossed it out, but she’ll worry about that later. 

“Keep going.”

Eloise’s face was filled with confusion, but as soon as she turned the pages and realized, a single tear fell. The margins were filled with little chicken scratch notes and doodles all written by Fred himself. He had stayed up the past few nights since he figured out the gift, hence the dark circles and lateness, all because he was trying to surprise her. Elle closed the book slowly, and held it tight to her chest, never wanting to let go. “Keep going.”

Eloise’s face was full of confusion, but she began slowly turning the pages and a single tear fell. The margins were filled with chicken scratch notes and little doodles, all done by Fred himself. He had stayed up the past two nights, hence the baggy eyes and lateness, all because he was trying to surprise her for her birthday. Elle

Fred Weasley, the boy who cared not at all about any sort of academic goals or literature, read a muggle book just for her. A few more more tears of happiness and ecstasy fell down her face, and she peered up at him in awe. She saw a whole new boy in front of her, not just the notorious prankster, but someone who cared about her and the things she was passionate about. Even if he was never previously interested in them.

Elle took a step towards him, and Fred reached up to wipe the tear off her face. 

“Hey- don’t cry, we have to go out there and crush Hufflepuff. Plus, tear stains would not help keeping this copy pretty.” 

She couldn’t help it. No one had ever gone out of their way to give her such a meaningful and kind gift, and it meant more than he could ever have known. Her quidditch robes were flowing, and her broom was propped up against the couch. She grabbed her equipment, and right before going to leave with him, Eloise ran forward and embraced him in a tight hug.

Fred was startled at first, but then leaned right in and hugged her back. Elle was on her tiptoes to reach him, so when he stood up, her feet picked up off the floor just ever so slightly.

It was a picture-perfect start to a not so perfect day. 

~~~

The game went more horrible than anyone could have expected. Eloise played absolutely outstandingly, especially since it was her first time playing in the rain. Scoring 160 points herself for the team, she was in the lead with the count. But after the dementor attack on Harry, the Hufflepuff seeker caught the snitch and that was the game. Cedric Diggory offered a rematch, but Oliver was too busy drowning himself in the showers to care.

Their friends were off to wait for Harry to wake up in the hospital wing, and the very exhausted and sweaty Eloise was pulled aside by her sister. 

“What-”

Kat began dragging her in the opposite direction, but Elle fought against it. “We just lost to Hufflepuff- y’know what that means?”

“Yeah? That Harry got hurt and his broom is broken.”

Kat violently shook her head, “No you idiot, Oliver is trying to drown himself in the showers!”

“Okay and?”

“I could use a good laugh today.”

Eloise’s face went sour, and she looked shocked at her sister. “We are not pervertedly watching the boy attempt to drown himself. C’mon.” 

Kat looked disappointed, and hung her head low, allowing herself to be pulled along by her sister towards the hospital wing.

About 20 minutes into sitting there, Kat was falling asleep of boredom. Harry wasn’t waking up, and everyone was quiet after the loss of the afternoon. 

“I’m going back to the dorms.”

Eloise picked her head out of her hands and gave her a knowing glare.

“Don’t.”

Kat rolled her eyes in annoyance, “I won’t. You guys are boring. The Chosen One has obviously been chosen for death so I’m outta here.”

George snorted at her remark, and Hermione gave a slight ‘hmph’ at her immaturity. 

Once back in the dorms, Kat ran to her bed and grabbed the package under her pillow. She sat down with her legs crossed, unsteady and tense. What could he have given her? 

Kat pulled at the red ribbon slowly, and pulled the perfect wrapping paper off slowly, without ripping it. For some odd reason, she didn’t want to throw it out, so she tossed it in a shoebox that was under her bed. 

The removed wrapping paper revealed a book. What was with the Thompson sisters and getting books from their pining lovers? 

It was a brand new copy of “Beginner Charms: Simple Household Spells to Make Life Easy.” By Bathilda Bagshot. There was a small green piece of paper sticking out of the middle, and when she pulled at it, the book opened to a specific spell. The Hot-Air charm.

Draco Malfoy, the comedian. The entire page was scribbled on, with little jokes and notes that were sarcastically over the top, including one that said “This is the part where you pick up your wand.” He went above and beyond to dumb it down for her, as if this was the first spell she had ever learned. The boy had gone out of his way, and given her a gift. Not just any gift, but something that meant something to them. While really it had no true value, it was better than anything else he could’ve given her because it meant something. It was an inside joke. Kat Thompson had an inside joke with Draco Malfoy. 

While to many, this kind of a gift would be rude or offensive, or simply a gag gift, but Kat was sitting on her bed, wearing a smile that was miles wide.

***


	9. The Boggart and Board Games

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW// mentions of family issues +alcoholism + + bad coping techniques… could be some sad and yucky stuff, so as my lord and savior MsKingBean89 says, take care of yourselves and be kind to your mind.

***

The weekend went by slowly, with Kat dragging her feet trying to avoid Monday as much as possible. The coming stress and tension in her remaining detentions was impending, hung over her head like a black cloud of darkness. While her last interaction with Draco had ended horribly, she then got to see a different side of him when she opened his gift. 

Draco was toxic. She knew that. It’s not like she went blind and deaf watching the movies, Kat was fully aware that his character arc is not a pretty one. But there was something that pulled her, something other-worldly that caused her desire to be around him. The connection of damage. The wall they both put up on the outside to keep others out, seeming tough and stubborn but in reality they want nothing more than someone to let inside. 

Monday classes were filled to the brim with rigorous topics, with the Troll Rebellion in History of Magic, and the ever-so famous boggart lesson during Defense Against the Dark Arts. 

Professor Lupin was the best teacher they had for any class, he made it both fun and easy. It didn’t feel like learning as much as practicing and participating. The first few classes the previous week were reviewing the things learned last year, and everyone did well. Their first lesson on Monday morning was a practical one, and an infamous class at that. 

The Boggart.

Remus Lupin always excelled when it came to dark creatures, specifically boggarts, and after a run in with one at Hogwarts when he was at school, he made sure to add it to his curriculum. What he could not have prepared for was the strange assortment of greatest fears. Sure, there was the spider for Ron, the snake, and Professor Snape, but then came the Thompson twins. Both girls knew that no one after Harry got to go, so they made sure to be in front of him. I mean who wouldn’t be curious to see what their deepest fear was.

Eloise went first. She stepped up to the boggart quite confidently, assuming she knew all of her greatest fears. Disappointing her parents, being sad, dying. But then the form in front of her began to change. 

The scene before her turned into a dark cloud, from which emerged her parents. They were yelling, “You failed us. You are a failure.” Elle barely had a second to process it before the boggart changed. 

It was a tiny clip of the scene from the Battle of Hogwarts. It was Fred’s body on the stretcher, and George was sobbing into Ron’s shoulder. Eloise and Kat were holding onto each other right next to them, and the fake Elle whispered, “I couldn’t save him. It was my fault.” There were gasps heard around the room, and everyone was confused. What were they looking at?

The boggart changed again. 

Kat was on the floor, dead. Covered in a pool of thick, red blood, and standing next to Kat’s body, she saw herself. The boggart version of Eloise was staring, blood covering her hands. “It was my fault.” The real Elle took a sharp breath, terrified of the scene before her. 

Professor Lupin was just about to step in, when Eloise finally pulled herself from shock and plucked up the courage. She threw her entire body into the movement as she pointed her wand at the scene and shouted:

“Riddikulus!”

The blood turned into ketchup, and the fake Kat stood right up from where she was and began laughing, “Perfect prank!” The boggart versions of the girls laughed, high-fived, and then just disintegrated. They faded away, and Elle finally let out a breath of relief. She couldn’t even begin to worry about what everyone saw, since all she knew was that her fears were a lot more terrifying in person than she could have expected.

The classroom began to nervously laugh, since none of them were prepared to see their classmate’s dead body that morning, even if it was just an illusion. 

But now, it was Kat’s turn. She was already feeling shaken up from seeing herself dead on the floor, and seeing her best friend’s entire personality on display for everyone. She remembered a piece from the books, that if someone was overcome by fear or anxiety, a boggart could take multiple forms for them. 

Stepping up to the boggart, she was petrified. On the outside of course, no one would know. Kat constantly wore a mischievous smirk, one that was hiding so much. You would never know the kinds of things constantly running through her mind, since usually she just spoke a few smart remarks and made people laugh. 

The boggart stirred slightly, until all that was in front of her was a door. It was her childhood bedroom door. It creaked open, and in walked her mother. Holding a bottle of alcohol, but she was quiet. Everyone around was confused, and no one said a word. The boggart made no noise, and then the scene progressed.

There were a few mumblings and mutters around the classroom, but none that Kat heard. Her feet were stuck to the floor, eyes locked on the boggart unfolding in front of her. 

Then, a male figure walked through the door, and Kat took a sharp intake of air. It was a gross looking man, with a beer belly and covered in bad tattoos. Suddenly, it was a different man. And then another, and another, and another. Finally, Kat woke up from her stupor, and her face changed from fear to anger. 

She quickly and easily spoke, “Riddikulus.” And the boggart turned into a clown holding a balloon-animal instead of her mother holding a bottle of whiskey, but that didn’t change what everyone just saw. 

Back in Seattle, Kat’s family life was not perfect. At all. 

Kat’s dad left when she was 3, and he was never heard from again. Her mom turned to a constant circle of men and different boyfriends to support her alcoholic tendencies and Kat’s upbringing, but then it became more about the men and alcohol and less about Kat. It mattered much much less about where Kat was during the day or after school, and instead of where she was going to get her next bottle. Her mother never went past screaming at her, but it was Kat’s greatest fear that one day she would push her too far and it would end poorly, hence her boggart.

This led her to rebelling and acting out, because her mother was so neglectful and couldn’t have cared less about what she did, so any attention was good attention in her mind. Even if it was that her mom was screaming at her for sneaking out to Elle’s, or stealing one of her mom’s bottles of Malibu. Kat struggled to tell Eloise about every aspect of her home life, and while she knew about most of it,, she didn’t know it all. She worried that her best friend would look at her differently, or treat her differently because of what she dealt with at home, and she did not want that. Kat simply wanted to be able to leave it all behind her each day when she slammed the front door, and not address it. Should she have been in therapy? Probably. Did she care? No. It worked for her. Push it all into a little box, shove it in the back of her brain, and once it all spilled out she gets to cry about it once. Maybe twice if necessary. But Kat never talked about it.

She moved to the back of the line, where Elle stood with a concerned look, and just as she began to open her mouth, Kat shrugged.

“I don’t want to talk about it. We’re here now. That’s Seattle, and it doesn’t matter.”

“Ok. But our story is that my parents were actually teachers from Ilvermorny, and that was simply an aunt of ours.”

Kat looked at her with a quizzical face, and Eloise explained. “Remember? Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are our parents. We’re siblings. Our different parents from Seattle were the boggart, if anyone asks questions that's who it was.”

Kat simply nodded, and went back to silence. Eloise knew not to push her, but on the inside just wanted to give her best friend a hug. Desperately, she didn’t want, but needed to be able to understand how to help her, how to make it all okay. For once, Eloise didn’t know what to do. 

Draco was standing a few people ahead of them, with his back turned. He glanced quickly over his shoulder and shot her a concerned look, but that was all. Kat didn’t move, didn’t respond, and simply kept her eyes staring at the ground. Eloise saw him move, and glared at him with such fervent anger that one would think she was shooting daggers out of her eyes. Elle was always protective over her best friend, because that was what she was good at. Helping others. 

The rest of the class went along as it was supposed to, with Harry’s dementor boggart and Professor Lupin’s completely not suspicious moon. Eloise and Kat joked on their way out because they couldn’t comprehend how it took that long for people to figure out Lupin’s secret. 

The rest of the day was quiet, and the Thompson sisters parted ways when Elle headed over to quidditch practice and Kat was off to dinner. After the major loss to Hufflepuff and the reschedule of the Slytherin game in three weeks, Oliver was back to grinding them with practice. There weren’t as many as the first week, but the one practice was double the length of the usual ones, with even more drills and laps. Eloise was pushing herself even harder, since she did well during the last game, but this time it was against Slytherin and she had an axe to grind with a certain blonde boy. 

Elle was not one for confrontation, but one thing was true about her personality even back in Seattle. She was only a bitch in the mornings, and on a sports field. The sweetest girl you would ever meet, with the kindest eyes and the ability to see the good in everyone, is unrecognizable when she steps onto the field. All her inhibitions are gone, and she was a different person. The adrenaline overcame her body, and she allowed it to fulfill her every thought. Therefore, she was looking forward to rocking Draco Malfoy’s shit during the game. She wasn’t going to let Kat know, but the love she felt for Draco scared Elle. He was so toxic, the way he treated her and others reminded Elle too much of how Kat was treated at home, and she knew that her best friend did not deserve that. 

~~~

Detention that evening was the most uneventful out of the four Kat had that week. Thursday was set to be her last one, at least for now. 

Once she arrived at the Potions classroom, she was scolded by Snape for the incident with the ingredients at Hogsmeade the last time she had detention. Just like that, she had another week’s worth of detentions on schedule. Draco waltzed into the classroom late, as usual, and got a simple two second telling-off by their Professor. Yet again, favoritism from the head of house.

Kat pushed it to the back of her mind, and managed to ignore him all evening. It wasn’t until the last second as she was marching out of the classroom as she simply stated, “Thank you.” to the rude Slytherin boy. 

He was left alone in the room, with his jaw dropped and a fire of anger and confusion in his eyes. How had she managed to leave him speechless every time, but at the same time made him fume with anger and aggravation. 

~~~

Back in the common room, Eloise, Hermione, and Harry were busy attempting to teach their friends how to play “Go Fish” with an old deck of cards they found. It was not going well.

“You can’t ask multiple people for a card!” 

“Elle, this game makes absolutely no bloody sense.” Ron whined, throwing his cards down on the coffee table in front of the fire. Hermione, Ron and Harry were all smushed onto the couch, with Fred and Eloise sitting on the floor, Lee in the armchair with George standing behind him, and Oliver was pacing around trying to understand the rules. It was complete chaos, and Elle was loving every minute of it. 

Fred leaned over Eloise’s shoulder and tried to crane his neck to see her cards. She noticed immediately and burst into giggles, swatting at his shoulder before making her turn. None of the wizard-born kids were understanding this game, but that’s what made it fun. Everyone was playing with different rules, and no one was on the same page.

Suddenly, the portrait hole swung open, and a stern-faced Kat entered the room. It was her resting-bitch face that was taken to a whole new level.

“Hey Kat what’s-” George began, before being cut off as she threw herself onto the open chair around the table. 

“What are we playing?” She simply stated, cutting him off, but there was a new, strange tone to her voice. It seemed completely fine, but there was something off. Kat seemed as though she was rushing, trying to spill every single word out as fast as possible and avoiding questions.

Hermione piped up, “Well we’re attempting to teach them ‘Go Fish”, but it is not working at all.”

They all laughed cheerily, and then Kat was struck with an idea.

“What about Uno?”

“Fuck no.” Elle shot a piercing look at her sister, knowing the kinds of things that have resulted from games of Uno previously. 

“What’s Uno?” Lee asked, curious as to what made Eloise get so dramatic all of a sudden.

“No.” Both Eloise and Hermione shot back at the same time, making a connected eye contact before aggressively turning their heads back to the group.

There was a confused laugh shared amongst them, but then the silence was broken once more.

“I think we should try to teach them. It’d be fun.” All eyes turned to Harry, who finally voiced his thoughts on the matter. Hermione and Eloise continued to try and express their concerns, but no one noticed the other Thompson sibling- intensely glaring at the coffee table, in her own world of thoughts. She was rubbing her hands together, looking at though she was debating her evil plans for this game.

If one thing was certain, it was that all inhibitions and personal feelings get left at the door during a game of ‘Uno’. Especially with the Thompson sisters officiating, and under their house rules.

After a quick explanation, and a small argument over regular rules versus house rules between Kat and Hermione. The house rules won out, after the description of stacking plus fours and stacking additions to give someone an insane amount of cards got the Weasley twins hyped to play. 

An hour and three rounds later, the group around the fireplace was a completely different sight. Most of the other students had gone up to the dorms to get away from their chaos, or cast a muffliato spell around them. The scene had changed much more from earlier, but familiar. Kat flopped on the floor, leaning with George and Lee, then Harry, Ron and Hermione on the couch, and Fred and Eloise leaned up against one another quite comfortably in the loveseat. They were all laughing and yelling at one another, with the biggest grins on their faces. Ron was beet red, and holding what seemed to be twenty or more cards, meanwhile Hermione had two. Eloise and Fred had joined forces to take down as many of the Weasleys as possible, and poor Harry was getting beat up by Kat.

“Hey- what can I say? You’re the chosen one… looks like you’ve been chosen for this plus four!” Kat slammed down the card quite dramatically, glancing up at Harry and wiggling her eyebrows. 

Everyone burst into tears laughing, and Harry begrudgingly took more cards from the pile. The purebloods and wizard-raised kids were grasping these rules a lot easier than with ‘Go Fish’, and they had all decided they would do a muggle game night every Friday. Lee even summoned snacks and drinks from the kitchen, so their area by the fireplace was full of food, thrown about Uno cards, and pure euphoric joy. They were in their own little world, living like normal teenagers. At least as normal as a bunch of wizard kids at a magical school can be.  
A little later, Ron and Kat got into a squabble over the game as well. She seemed to love picking fights over this game, and Eloise was just glad her friend had other targets. 

“Kat- How did you do that?!”

“Do what? Give you a shit ton of cards?”

Ron sputtered, “Uh-no… I uh--, bloody hell.”

“See- I’m just so good at this game.”

Lee cut in, “No- you’re just cruel.”

“You gave me five plus fours in the past twenty minutes. How do you even manage to get all those cards?” Harry inserted, laughing. Everyone joined in, and a wicked grin spread across Kat’s face. 

Eloise was leaned up against Fred when she threw her legs across his lap, giggling and sprawling out as they played. “What’s on deck for this week?”

“Not much… Classes, practice, and getting ready for the Slytherin game in a few weeks.” George answered, grumbling at Lee’s plus four he was now on the receiving end of. 

“Do you guys ever talk about anything besides quidditch?” Kat groaned, earning a chuckle from Hermione, the only non-quidditch obsessed person around the table. 

“Hey- back off. It’s not my fault your entire personality revolves around detention and the blood purist.” Eloise picked up her head, and her smart remark made everyone turn towards her. There was a change in her tone, something sharper, and much more targeted than usual. Even Fred looked over at her with a confused look.

Kat’s face turned angry, like it was when she entered the room earlier. “Oh- I see how it is. Little miss perfect? Things are only allowed to go your way?” 

“You know that’s not what I meant. But he’s horrible to you. Why don’t you see that?”

Eloise got aggravated, and the two girls were in their own world, glaring at one another with a fervent stare that could only be compared to the tension between two great enemies. It was jarring, how they could go from the best of friends to hashing out their issues with heated arguments in a split second. 

Ron spoke up, attempting to ‘diffuse the tension’. “Why don’t we pack up for the evening… Seems like it’s getting quite late.”

Everyone around the fireplace except for the Thompson girls shook their head violently in agreement, all confused and nervous about the tension growing between the girls. They all ventured up to their respective common rooms, while Kat took her time. 

George surprisingly stayed back, and walked over to the third year. 

“I get it.”

Kat looked up, confused, and still somewhat fuming. “Get what?”

“The feeling. It’s always: Fred and George.” He shrugged for a moment, then continued, “Never George and Fred. He always starts the jokes. I always finish them.”

Kat nodded slowly, not understanding what he was getting at. Nevertheless, George continued. “We joke all the time, but he’s more confident. Ever since we were younger. Always been that way. I’ve just learned to accept our differences, and worry more about myself.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Just worry about yourself. Eloise is doing fine on her own, especially with my brother,” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at Kat, earning a small snicker, “She’ll be fine. You have to figure out what’s best for you.” 

Kat nodded more eagerly, and gave him a slight knock on his side. “Thanks.” She started to move towards the stairs, but George spoke up and caused her to stop.

“What happened with your boggart today?”

Kat spun around, with a confused and offended look. “How would you know about that? You’re not in my class.” 

“Well- uh,” George’s face filled red, and he sputtered, “Ickle-Ronniekins told me. Sure shook some people up to say the least. But I don’t care about that.” He noticed her hands on her hips, judgingly, “I just want to make sure you’re okay.” 

Kat wrapped her arms protectively around herself. “I’m fine. Nothing I haven’t seen before, and it’s better because it can’t get to me here.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah... Don’t worry about me.”

George took one of her hands in his, and smiled. “Us forgotten twins gotta stick together. And anyways, it’ll really get to Draco if you hang out with me.” 

Kat looked down at his touch, and then back up at him. “You’re right.”

“I know I am.” He winked, “I think the other members of our twin sets deserve a good pranking.” 

She grinned back at him, gave him a quick hug, and ran off to bed with a new sense of rejuvenation and forgiveness. 

~~~


	10. Astronomy Escapade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n: reminder- eloise and kat scripted that everyone was aged up a year, just for logistics and maturity purposes, so when hermione normally turns 14 in third year, she is really turning 15 in their reality. Age is really the only thing super different, mainly so it’s not weird between eloise and fred, but other than numbers it won’t affect anything else. The dates might be off just slightly for time progression purposes, but right now we’re mid-september. happy reading!

***

The rest of the week went by quickly, at least for one of the Thompson sisters. Eloise was busy with the twins, pranking up a storm and prepping for the next birthday on their calendar, Hermione. She was set to turn 15 on the 19th of September, a little over one week after the girls. Eloise begged Oliver for the night off of practice to throw another party for her, but this time a much smaller one. Hermione was nothing like Kat with the desire for a big party in her name, and rather wanted a small game night with just her friends and some good food. The dedicated Quidditch captain didn’t agree but compromised for an early afternoon practice instead so they could have it after, but only after making Elle do 10 more laps around the pitch. 

The twins were more than excited to have the addition to their group, but Filch and McGonagall definitely have not enjoyed it. Not only was she encouraging their pranks, but also increasing their getaway time. A few of the upperclassmen Slyhterins from the Quidditch team were very against her addition, since they were seemingly the main targets of these pranks. The next game was coming up fast, so the trio was pranking their opponents a lot. And the Slytherins were not happy about it-- at all. 

From dungbombs to hexing their hair red, and changing all their robes to Gryffindor, the Weasley twins plus Elle were wreaking havoc on the halls day after day, and she was loving every second of it. There was not a worry in her mind. She was purely and perfectly happy.

For now.   
~~~

Katie Thompson, or Kat, was spending her days dragging her heels through classes just to spend the rest of the day in detention. The first night, Draco didn’t say a word to her, and they spent the entire evening working in silence until Kat said and short and sharp, “Thank you,” for her birthday gift right as she stormed out, so he didn’t have time to make any sort of snide remark in return. 

Tuesday night, she was not as lucky. She arrived at the classroom on time as usual, and began her scrubbing of the cauldrons before her Professor could spit out rude words directing her to do so. Draco waltzed into the room 15 minutes late, also as usual, and took his time with his scrubbing. It couldn’t even be called scrubbing at his rate, with a miniscule amount of effort going into the work. He was always one for getting his way, and especially getting away with no effort thrown into something. 

About half an hour into their session, Snape left the room to deal with something in Slytherin house. Draco took this as his moment to strike. 

“You got to bed fine on your birthday, correct?” It was sharp. Less of a question and more of a demand, not asking because he cared, but questioning because he wanted to insult someone. 

“Fine.” There was no emotion in her voice, simply hatred. He managed to make every opening for a connection hurt, and painful. So why should she try in return?

They went back to silence for a few moments, when he surprisingly spoke again.

“Did you open your gift?” This time, his voice felt softer. Still sharp, and hurtful, but somehow there was a feeling of softness. He hoped that she did get the gift, that maybe she saw his effort. The one he was waiting for her to see, the one he had never shown anyone else. There was some strange compulsion inside him, as though a yearning, a gravitational pull towards her. One that he couldn’t control.

Kat glanced up at him, questioning his motives. When she realized the difference, she spoke “I did.”

He waited a moment, “... And?”

She hesitated, and then smirked up at him. “And it was very funny.” Draco’s mouth pulled slightly, and she continued, “Now I won’t need your help for the drying charm.”

The tension in the room eased slightly, and as both Draco and Kat went back to their work, it was calm and not as harsh as before. They didn’t speak, the two rivals simply went on with their work without bothering the other by simply existing. 

~~~

Wednesday night, Kat burst into the classroom five minutes late. Peeves had been busy throwing water balloons at a group of first years, and in an attempt to scare him away, she got hit with a few. The Gryffindor finally remembered to use the drying charm, and got stalled helping the young kids and then cooling off herself.

Much to her surprise though, when she threw open the door arriving in the dungeons a few moments later, Draco was already there. Scrubbing away at the freshly dirty cauldrons from classes that day, with more effort than usual. Which is saying something, because usually there’s little to no effort at all. Draco Malfoy, was changing. Not a lot, not even visibly to anyone else, but she knew it. 

Professor Snape tutted as she rushed into the room, “Late. Another night of detention for your lack of respect to my schedule.”

“But- I… Draco comes in late everyday--” She began, sputtering out an argument, but her Professor simply shook his head and turned back to grading whatever papers were thrown about his desk. 

There was a small snicker from Draco’s side of the classroom, causing Kat to whip her head and look. There he was, standing with both his hands on his hips, almost mocking her. 

The aggravated Gryffindor stormed over to him, and he mockingly joked, “C’mon Thompson… can’t be late to detention.”

She was speechless yet again, not only because she was caught off guard by his joking tone, but also because she was not prepared to add to her detention sentence today. Kat had been setting goals to be done with Snape AND detention by the next quidditch match. There was supposed to be nothing in her way from celebrating Hermione’s birthday, and her best friend’s athletic accomplishments. 

“Oh yeah- coming from the guy who’s late, what, every single day except today?” She looked at him questioningly, “I wouldn’t be surprised if you were the one who got Peeves to throw all those water balloons at the students.”

He chuckled at her assumption, “If only I was that genius.” Draco took a moment to look past her and check that Snape wasn’t looking at them, before locking eyes with her again. “Wanna bunk off detention?”

Kat’s jaw practically smashed onto the floor, eyes wide with shock. “With me?” 

Draco simply replied with a wink, causing her to blush red. There was obviously something new, a sudden change since none of his Slytherin goons were around to watch and judge his every move, but Kat was still caught extremely off guard by it. 

“No… I meant Snape.” He continued joking sarcastically, rolling her eyes at her speechless demeanor. 

“Why? I was under the influence that you hated me, and the feeling was mutual.”

“Oh I do. But I hate detention more.” With their eyes still locked, Draco sent another cocky wink her way before grabbing her wrist and booking out the door. 

They heard a faint shout from their Potions professor, but it was lost from their ears as the two polar opposite enemies ran through the castle halls, one dragging the other with no destination in mind. 

He dragged her, while she followed willingly, all the way around the castle and finally ended at their destination. 

The astronomy tower.

“What are we doing here?” She voiced her concerns, staring out at the night sky, full of bright stars and a never-ending void of space.

Draco walked ahead of her, planting his hands down on the railing and staring out at the sky.  
“Dunno. Just wanted to get away for a moment.”

“Yeah- with me? Pardon me for not believing you.”

“What do you think I want?” Draco questioned, and Kat’s voice suddenly abandoned her throat. She had no clue what he wanted. At this rate, she didn’t even know what she wanted.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you hexed me and left me here till morning.” She laughed, earning a small one from him as well. 

“Well that wouldn’t be very gentleman-like of me, now would it?”

Kat scoffed, “Why on earth would you care about being a gentleman?” Draco turned around finally to face her, and was staring into the eyes of a determined Thompson twin. Her stance was powerful, hands on her hips and glaring into his eyes. He started to open his mouth, when she continued speaking. “Are we going to act like you didn’t call me a whore in front of the whole school? That’s not very gentleman-like if you ask me.”

His eyes lowered, breaking their contact, and his posture changed into something disappointed. Draco seemed upset, and vulnerable-- something he had never seemed or showed before. 

“Did you like your present?” He offered, glancing up ever so slightly at the girl in front of him, whose powerful and intimidating stance had yet to falter. He may have asked about it a night ago, but this time he had a joking tone. This time, he was actually asking. He wanted to know if she liked it, if she saw the notes, if she realized he got a red ribbon special since she was a Gryffindor. Making simple conversation, laughing with his enemy? Or were they friends? No. Not yet.

“Oh sure. Thank you very much for the beginners textbook. Did you nick that from a first-year’s trunk?” There was a stinging feeling to her tone, one that was not going to back down. Kat was determined to not let him get to her. She was on the attack this time. 

The situation she was in was already confusing enough, Kat was not going to allow herself to get overpowered or intimidated by Draco. Not this time. 

“Anyways, you asked me if I liked my gift yesterday. I already answered this part of the quiz.” 

Draco gaped for a moment, but then quickly picked up his lower jaw and began, “It’s not a quiz, I just wanted to know if you liked my jokes.” He was mindlessly picking at the hem of his shirt sleeve, anxious and conflicted about being alone with Kat.

Something drew them together, even if he didn’t know if he wanted it. Or did he want it , but was simply hung up on what others would think? Draco was stuck in time, in his decisions, and in his morality. Everything and everyone around him was telling him, no- ordering him to stay away, to know his place, Gryffindors and Slytherins were to be enemies. But for some strange, other-worldly reason, he didn’t want to. 

“Is that all you have to say?” She interrupted his ranting inner monologue, glaring at him as he stood fixated on playing with the hem of his shirt nervously.

“Oh- uh… what?”

“Is that all our conversations are going to consist of now?” One hand dropped from her hip, and she continued glaring at him, but let down her guard slightly to see if he’d react any different. 

Draco immediately noticed her relaxation of posture, and he copied as well. His hand fell from its place at his shirt sleeve, and rested in his pocket instead. “Not if you don’t want them to.”

Kat’s eyes glinted with mischief, an idea passing through her mind. “Lovely. If we’re going to be here a while, might as well make ourselves comfortable.” She plopped right down onto the floor, leaning her back against the wall, and held out her hand beckoning for Draco to sit down across from her. 

Acting as though he was planning to do this already, before she motioned him to, he slid onto the floor and stared at the ground. Now very aware of how close they were, legs side by side as they faced one another against the thin walls of the tower. Draco shifted uncomfortably, wringing his hands in his lap, waiting for her to say something.

“So when’s your birthday?”

Draco paused for a moment, confused, “What?”

“I’m trying to make conversation other than you simply asking if I liked my gift.” Kat coughed for dramatic effect, before continuing. “I said-- When’s your birthday?”

He sputtered, before managing out, “Oh… It’s June 5th.” Draco managed to pull his confidence and usual Slytherin cockiness back together, “But why would you care?” He finished with a slight sneer, until he realized that he provoked Kat by doing so. Her face morphed from a calm, excited expression, hopeful that they were bonding and forming a real connection over their shared trauma, but now it bore a look of pure disgust, and malicious hatred.

“You’re right. I don’t care.”

Without another word, she stood up from their spot on the floor, and stormed off and away from the tower as fast as her feet could take her. Had she been able to summon a broom or even been able to ride one, she would’ve done so to simply escape that situation faster. Draco was left sitting on the floor, with his hands dropped to his sides in defeat. Once again, he royally fucked up with her. 

His only chances to actually get to know her were detention, because some part of his messed up ego refused to allow himself to have anything but the usual Slytherin attitude towards the girl. Regardless of his stirrings of feelings towards her, if he could even call them feelings, she was still a blood-traitor, a Gryffindor, and best friends with his mortal enemy, Harry Potter. 

~~~

Eloise herself was not doing so hot. Between practices, her confusing and convoluted feelings for Fred, and the overwhelming amount of schoolwork being thrown at her on the daily, she could barely breathe. Not to mention the growing tension between her and her sister, who was moving farther and farther away from her, with no rightful explanation as to why. All Eloise could blame was Draco Malfoy. And boy- did she blame him.

The difference between Fred and George versus Eloise and Kat was their motivations. Most students were a mix between houses, and these were no exceptions. They were all Gryffindors in the end of course, but Kat had a flaming undertone of Slytherin, with her smarts and wit coming from Ravenclaw. Elle displayed the loyalty of a badger, but she could certainly bare her fangs when needed, like a snake. Fred and George reigned supreme in the Gryffindor category, but had the sprinklings of every house. They’d never let anyone know, seeing how much they goof off, but if they really tried they were wicked smart, perfectly cunning to plan pranks, and tremendously loyal to their family. Blood or chosen. 

The reason this was so important was Eloise’s plan to get out her anger towards Draco Malfoy. She had been sending stray and anonymous hexes his way in the halls, from shortening his robes 6 inches or turning his hair blue, she was allowing herself to get out some pent up aggravation each day.

By the end of the week, he was constantly followed by his little minions, Crabbe and Goyle, who waddled along next to him with absolute fear and intimidation in their eyes simultaneously.  
Her biggest plan was yet to be revealed, but involved the upcoming Quidditch match, a few color changing charms, and a huge knock off his broom. If all went well. 

Otherwise, when she was not wreaking anonymous havoc on the Slytherin boy, she spent her few fleeting moments of peace either sleeping, revising, or spending time with her newfound friends, especially Fred. More often than not, the “friends” could be found leaning on one another in the common room, or sharing one blanket while revising on the couch, almost but not quite touching. They received totally “not” suspicious glances and wiggling eyebrows from their friends, specifically George or Ginny, but both oblivious lions brushed it off as the other being kind and friendly. Eloise was completely convinced that Ginny was messing with her, even when she informed her that Fred had never looked that way at anyone. Not even Angelina Johnson, whom Elle knew he had a crush on at some point at school, since they originally attended the Yule Ball together. 

One particular evening, the group around the fireplace reflected it’s usual. Fred was leaned up against the arm of the couch, with a drowsy Elle leaning up against him, fresh copy of Pride & Prejudice open and in hand. 

When she wasn’t on the field playing Quidditch, that book was constantly in her hand. Either in her bookbag, reminding her of the kindness of her newfound ginger friend, or in her hand, and her neck craning to read again and again. The constant reading, or obsession over making every move perfect at school caused her normal clumsiness to heighten, and the veteran Gryffindors to keep a hand on her shoulder when walking through the halls to avoid any incidents with moving staircases or stone walls. 

Ginny and Hermione were also on the couch, in a heated debate over the standings for the Slytherin match coming up. George, Lee, Ron and Harry were scattered around the area, watching a match of Wizard’s chess being played out in full brutal fashion. 

Lee spoke in an aggravated tone after Ron’s knight had finally taken his rook. “Where’s Kat?”

Elle didn’t pick her head out of her book, or even glance up at anyone. There was a small moment of silence, where a few of them, Fred, George, and Hermione glanced at the Thompson twin, awaiting her to answer the question regarding her sister. When Ginny realized she was not planning on answering, she quickly did so herself. “Detention.”

Still refusing to look at anyone, mid-flipping a page of her book, she muttered, “What a surprise.”

Fred was busy fiddling with one of his prototype firecrackers, attempting to enchant it to spell something out or even make the shape of a letter, when he glanced down suspiciously at the girl leaned up against his side. 

“Are you alright--” He hesitated, feeling her shift against him, and even he could notice that she was extremely tense at the topic.

“Fine.”

Ron let out a loud chuckle from the other side of the table, and all eyes landed on him. His eyes widened in fear, and he looked to Hermione confused, before she spoke. “Ronald. Be nice.”

“Nice about what? She’s obviously in a mood.”

Fred reached out and whacked his baby brother upside the head, earning a groan from the youngest Weasley boy, but when he leaned back to his seat, the girl on his side was gone. Fred whipped around to look towards the stairs of the girls dorm, and saw the back of Elle’s figure headed up the stairs, slumped over and looking both exhausted and aggravated. One hand was balled in a fist, and the other held her book. 

The group sat in an awkward silence for a moment, before returning to their separate conversations, but now with an added tension and awkwardness in the air. No one dared to talk about what had just happened, and no one wanted to. 

~~~

As usual, Kat was missing in action, stuck in detention down in the dungeons. This time, she had a plan of action. She had given herself a simple rule to follow regarding the rest of her cauldron-scrubbing sentence: 

Don’t talk to Draco, and do not let him get to you. No matter what, avoid him. Ignore him.

Kat arrived at the classroom five minutes early, allowing herself to get situated and avoid any contact with the aggravating blood purist. Once again, that only lasted so long.

She was taking out some pent-up aggravation on the current cauldron in her hands when the bleach blonde Slytherin strolled into the room, late again. She had fifteen full minutes of peace and quiet, perfectly able to tune out the heavy breaths of Snape at his desk, sighing at the stupidity of a student’s paper on his desk. At one point he even chose to inform Kat that the idiotic peice of work on his desk belonged to none other than her own sister Eloise. She certainly was not the booksmart out of the two. Luckily, Snape was no issue to her, since she knew practically all his secrets and did well in his class. Meanwhile she knew lots about Draco, Kat was growing much more aware that there was an extensive amount additional to him than what she could see on the surface.

“Thompson.” He approached her carefully, not wanting to overstep or crack their strained relationship any more than it already was.

“Hmph.” 

She continued scrubbing away, not caring for anything he had to say. Kat wondered if he would ever call her by her first name, rather than the aggravating way that he normally addressed her by her last name. It seemed to be his kryptonite, referring to anyone by their given name, preferring their family name instead. 

Snape made a few jabs at the Gryffindor’s cleaning, and never once made a comment about Draco. Kat buried herself in the task, spending as much time with her head in the cauldron and avoiding all contact with him. That was her rule.

Ignore him.

It worked for a long while. Three nights of detention passed, and he still was getting the cold shoulder. It wasn’t until the night of Hermione’s birthday party that her hand was forced, and her rule was broken.

Kat was busy scrubbing away the residue from a botched Pepper-up Potion that the second years were working on when Snape cleared his throat in preparation to speak. She sighed quietly, anticipating a snide remark or insult to her performance, but was proven wrong when he spoke. 

“Mister Malfoy. If you will be planning on staring at Miss Thompson all evening, you are wasting my time.”

Draco’s eyes went wide, and Kat snorted through her nose so violently that she began coughing. She was trying to both hide her laughter and surprise at the blonde boy, and trying to hide the redness that had quickly flushed her entire face. 

Ignore him Kat. Ignore him. 

“I-- erm… yes sir,” was all Draco could manage out, obviously embarrassed to be called out by his own head of house. He walked over to the table Kat was seated at, and grabbed one of the still dirty cauldrons, a rag, and began cleaning. He muttered, “Sorry,” before burying himself in the task. 

“It’s fine.” It most definitely was not fine. This was not helping her goal, this was not helping her stick to the one rule she set for herself today. And yet, here he was. Standing, glaring her down, a man on a mission. But what mission was that? Kat couldn’t read him, couldn’t understand what his goal was. She sure knew what hers was at the beginning, but now even she was confused. He was so hurtful, so cruel, but still there was an appeal. The toxicity was exciting. Not boring like her sister Elle and Fred, who were slowly growing from friends to something more, regardless of their obliviousness to the others feelings, but rather something exciting.

“Good,” Draco said in a harsh whisper, and continued cleaning for a moment before looking up at her, “I’m sorry about the other day.”

Kat’s neck snapped up, and she bore the most confused and shocked expression. Had Draco Malfoy actually apologized? To her? Twice in one night? She should probably take him to the Hospital Wing at this rate. Realistically, he must’ve realized her level of surprise to his sentence, and he covered himself quickly, “Relax, I’m not begging for forgiveness, I just-” 

He caught her eye for a split second, and she saw a different side of him, again. While it was deep underneath, Kat could see that there was something inside of him that was caring, that was truly and really trying to apologize. He may not have cared for her to accept the apology, but what mattered was that he did so. 

Kat muttered, “Thank you,” and shot him a quick smile, before returning to their work silently. It was a simple interaction, small and tiny, but it meant more to both of them than they truly knew. Somehow, in between the madness, the house rivalry, and their hatred for one another on the outside, they were connecting. The bond between them that continued to pull them together even when they were yanking and running away stayed strong, was slowly allowing for an evolution of a relationship. What kind of relationship? That waits to be seen. 

~~~

At the end of detention, Kat walked out of the room shuffling her feet, but eager to get back to the common room to celebrate Hermione. She was readjusting the bookbag on her shoulder when an arm reached out from the dark hallway next to her and pulled her in the opposite direction.

“What the f-” She began, before someone placed a finger over her lips, shushing her. As Kat’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw a face in front of her, bent down to her eye level. 

“George?” 

He smirked at her, and he took his other hand out from behind his back, revealing a bag that held three small metal spheres. She opened her mouth to speak again, but he cut her off. 

“Smoke bombs. Nicked them from a Muggle joke shop with Fred over the summer in Egypt, but I figured out how to charm them to put a stasis on the smoke and an engorgement charm when they get set off. Meaning it doesn’t go away, and keeps getting bigger. I even made the smoke green so that they think it’s the Slytherin’s doing, not ours.” There was a glint of mischief in his eye, and Kat’s smile grew a thousand times bigger, mirroring his gleam of mischief. 

“Who are we gonna throw them at?” She questioned, the smile not moving from her face.

George simply grabbed her arm again, and pulled her down the halls. They ran up what felt like a hundred flights of stairs, finally ending at the hallway right where the Quidditch teams usually come out of the locker rooms. Since they were now in the light, Kat realized that he was in his quidditch practice gear, but not sweaty.

“Isn’t Gryffindor practicing right now? That’s what Elle told me she was doing all afternoon.”

George tilted his head in guilt, and nodded. “Well- I told Oliver that I needed to finish something for McGonagall, since she's the only one who has more say in quidditch over him, he didn’t care.”

“But why couldn’t this wait until after practice?”

George winked, “Because our targets are on the quidditch team.”

Kat’s face was still for a moment, confused, but then finally a lightbulb turned on, and she let out an understanding “Ohhh…” before allowing her face and overall smile to get even bigger and happier. She realized that this was time for their perfect prank on their twins, Fred and Elle. George held two of the smoke bombs in one hand, leaning around the corner where they were hiding to wait and see when the team would start leaving. He was in the middle of explaining how to detonate the bombs to Kat when the first group of athletes began leaving, Alicia, Katie, and Angelina. They were laughing about a drill that Oliver had them doing, heading towards the tower, looking quite refreshed but soaked coming from practice and just getting out of the showers. Next came Harry and Oliver, who were bickering back and forth about the upcoming game, and then finally came the targets. Eloise and Fred. 

“You killed it out there today. Draco is going to be one unlucky bloke when we play them, he won’t see you coming.”

“Just like he won’t see all your bludgers coming.” She laughed, jokingly knocking into him.

Suddenly, Eloise tripped over her own two feet, sending her equipment flying across the ground along with her bookbag, spilling out her copy of Pride & Prejudice. Since they had just finished practice, and had showered in the locker room, Eloise was not feeling herself. One of her least favorite things was how she looked getting out of the shower, especially because once her hair dried it grew 100 times in frizziness and volume. But Fred thought otherwise. Both Gyffindors bent down to grab the assortment of items she had dropped, and when they collected everything and stood back up, the space between them had shrunk notably. 

Fred was standing mere inches away from her, gloves and novel in hand, face full of blush at their closeness. Eloise was absolutely embarrassed, since she had not been particularly self-confident in this specific moment. 

“Sorry- I look quite.. Uh-” She began, attempting to pull her hair back, before he cut her off quickly.

“Beautif--” 

Suddenly, there was a huge bang from their feet, and Elle jumped up and shouted, “What the fuck?!!” She began coughing at the appearance of green smoke, turning her head all around to try and spot the culprit. 

Fred whipped his head around knowingly, and just barely caught a glimpse of red hair and a girls’ figure running away. The hallway was quickly filling with bright green smoke, and within mere seconds the two Gryffindors could no longer see one another.

Around the corner, George and Kat were booking it back to the tower to seem inconspicuous. Unfortunately for them, they ran right into the first group of quidditch players leaving practice. 

“George?” Alicia exclaimed.

“Kat?” Angelina added, all three athletes sharing a confused look at the heaving students, obviously just running away from something.

George placed his hand on the back of his neck, rubbing nervously, and Kat simply began twiddling her fingers, before looking up at the group meekly. 

“Funny meeting you here!” She managed, with a cool tone, but sadly Katie Bell saw right through it.

“What did you two do?” She began, placing her hands on her hips accusingly, looking strangely similar to both Elle and Hermione. 

George whispered to her hushedly, “Bell. Ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies.”

Katie Bell looked between the two very suspicious Gryffindors, and shrugged her shoulders as Kat sent her a cocky wink, before grabbing George’s wrist and dragging him off towards the tower. 

Back by the locker rooms, Eloise and Fred were coughing up a storm trying to escape the smoke. Suddenly, they heard a sharp, high, and severe-sounding voice shout at them, but could barely manage to hear it. The smoke quickly cleared, vacuuming straight into Professor McGonagalls wand. She placed her hands on her hips accusingly, just as Katie Bell had done to their other halves a few moments ago on the other side of the castle. 

“Professor. Thank you.” Eloise emphasized, eyes showing her gratefulness as the smoke disappeared and she sputtered out her last few coughs. 

“Miss Thompson. Mister Weasley. I presume this was not your doing? Conveniently?”

Fred and Eloise glanced at one another, sharing a knowing look about who was responsible for the incident. 

“That is correct.”

“We were just heading back to the tower Professor. Eloise here was planning on helping me with some of your homework actually.” Fred stepped closer towards Elle, and placed a hand on her shoulder to sell their story to McGonagall so she didn’t question them any more or try and get them to rat out their twins. 

She glared the two of them down, her eyes landing on his hand on Eloise’s shoulder for a moment, before sighing at their games and waving the two Gryffindors off to the common room in defeat. 

As quick as their feet could take them, Elle Thompson and Fred Weasley flew off to the portrait hole to get their revenge and catch the two guilty lions. They ran past a group of Hufflepuffs in the middle of a conversation with one of the portraits, then a group of Ravenclaws stuck trying to figure out the newest riddle to get into their common room, and finally they arrived at the entrance to their own home, panting from the run up there.

“I swear-- they’re going to get it.” Eloise managed out, still trying to catch her breath.

“That bastard. We bought those smoke bombs in Egypt to use on Filch. And he turned around to use them on me? He’s got another thing coming.”

Elle looked up at him accusingly, “Used them on you? Were we both not victims of our evil twins?” Fred looked guilty, realizing what he had said, but then she gave him a small punch on his side, and he relaxed. 

The two broke into a raucous laughter, while the Fat Lady let them into the common room, and their eyes landed on the normal spot around the fireplace. George and Kat were suspiciously in the middle of a very interesting conversation, or at least that's what they wanted people to think. Hermione had her head stuck in a book, and was attempting to help Ron with their transfiguration paper. Lee was attempting to convince Oliver to tell him the team's strategy for the Slytherin game, and Harry was staring off into space at the fire, still in his practice gear. 

“Hermione! It’s birthday party day!” Elle smiled, ignoring the scene between George and Kat, who were attempting to act as though they’ve been there the entire afternoon when they most definitely had not. Hermione grinned slightly, before returning to help Ron. Not that she opposed, but she was not big on celebrating or being the center of attention. Hermione Granger was quite content with a small birthday, spent with her close friends laughing around the fire. 

“So… George.” Fred slowly walked around to the back of the couch where the two twins were, and Eloise followed just as slowly. “How was your thing with McGonagall?” He raised his eyebrows in suspicion, emphasizing ‘thing’ knowing that it didn’t even exist, and watched his brother squirm under the eye contact, trying to lie. 

“It was… fine!” His voice pitched up slightly, and as Eloise watched from next to Fred, realizing while the two six foot three Weasleys were perfect liars to get out of a sticky situation, they were incapable of lying to one another. 

Kat’s eyes showed only mischief and trouble, and she took her turn in covering for them. “It was quite fine. I actually needed some help from Professor McGonagall myself, so George and I spent the time together with her, after my detention at least.” She was much better at lying to her twin than George was, and it caught Fred and Eloise off guard. It would have been believable had they not seen the two guilty lions fleeing the scene firsthand. 

Fred straightened himself, and placed one hand on both George and Kat’s shoulder. “Funny. I’m almost certain that someone threw these-” Eloise pulled the shrapnel spheres from the smoke bombs out of her bag, holding it out as evidence. “Specific green smoke bombs at us after practice today. Strangely enough,” At this moment, George’s eyes were bulging, and Kat was rolling hers at the notion they got caught, but Fred continued, “These are the exact smoke bombs that you and I bought in Egypt Georgie.” 

From their friends around the fireplace, they heard a few small snickers and laughs at the scene unfolding, and especially at George’s reaction. He was less concerned with Fred knowing he and Kat did it, and more concerned with what his twin was going to do in response. After knowing Eloise for a few short weeks, he was a bit scared of her too. She was an unsuspecting third year, talented at quidditch and being a bitch in the mornings, slowly growing an adorable and perfect relationship with his twin brother, and a determined student, but when she was asked to do something reckless, she was so ready for it. Filch was more angry at them than ever, constantly bombarded with dungbombs and other assortments of Weasley products and pranks. She was nimble and quick from quidditch, making it easy for her to slip in and out to plant pranks. 

Kat rolled her eyes aggressively, and finally gave in, “Yeah… it was us. What are you gonna do about it?” Her tone was sarcastic as ever, and she was not scared whatsoever, unlike her pranking partner.

Fred simply glared her down from the challenge, before shooting Elle a knowing look. He glanced back at Kat and aggressively whispered, “Just you wait.”

The group burst into laughter, knowing that a prank war had just begun at Hogwarts. And the notorious pranksters, Fred and George Weasley were on opposite sides, meaning extra damage and competition.

The rest of the evening was spent celebrating Hermione’s birthday, and much to her dislike, the entire common room sang one big round of Happy Birthday, followed by a Lee Jordan-led rendition of “He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” but the female version. Everyone was happy and blissful, and even the Sirius Black chatter had dulled down for the night. 

Towards the end of the evening, the group was in a similar figuration to usual. Fred and Eloise were ‘platonically’ snuggled up under a blanket on the couch, both wearing faces of blush and nervousness to be so close to one another. Lee and George were tiredly playing a game of Exploding Snap, Ron and Harry were discussing something to do with the upcoming game, and everyone could tell that Harry was extremely nervous. He couldn’t get his mind off of it, and it seemed that every single conversation he was having the past few days was about the Slytherin game. Even Eloise, who felt she had something to prove after the last upset of a game versus Hufflepuff, wasn't as stressed as he was. 

Meanwhile, Hermione had her frizzy and enormous head of hair shoved into a new book, one that Elle had given her for her birthday. A big surprise, she gave her new friend Jane Austen’s entire collection. Hermione was never one for any sort of romance novels, and much preferred her own beloved and battered copy of “Hogwarts: A History”, but decided to give Jane Austens’ “Emma” a shot after hearing Eloise’s short summary. An hour and a half later, Hermione had yet to put it down.

Another happy and calm birthday in the books, much less eventful than the previous one, and everyone was content. There was the big game, and an unknowing adventure on the horizon for both Kat and Eloise, whether they knew it or not. Their simple adventure of falling in love was not without struggles and bumps, but only time could tell what was to come next.

And there was a lot to come. 

~~~


	11. The Bet

***

The next few weeks went by quicker than they could have expected.

Draco and Kat began to spend more time together, warming up to one another in the confines of the dungeons. Strangely enough, he constantly seemed to be in detention regardless of getting in trouble with his own head of house, but Kat was too absorbed in deciphering what was happening between them to question why or how he kept getting stuck down in detention with her. She was oblivious. He was obvious. 

Eloise and Fred were spending even more time together, both on the quidditch pitch and during their free time. Oliver’s training became more and more grueling and pressure filled as the incoming Saturday Slytherin game came closer and closer.

Before they knew it, it was the middle of October and the game was the coming Saturday. The members of the team had grown increasingly stressed and scared for the game, but most were glossing it over with a confident and cocky charm. Harry was mildly panicking, especially after the dementor incident last time. The added assistance of the brand new Firebolt provided a sliver of hope and excitement for the team, but the days leading up to the game were a blur of nerves and chaos. Fred, Eloise, George, Alicia, Angelina, and Katie Bell had all taken to revising for their classes in the late late hours of the night together after practices, and as a result were coming to meals and classes with enormous bags under their eyes.

Kat loved to poke fun at it, and Friday morning before the game the group of exhausted athletes plopped down at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall late. 

“So are they knock-off or designer?” Kat asserted while poking at her oatmeal, garnering a group of confused looks from the tired wizards in front of her.

“Huh?” mumbled Alicia.

“What?” said George.

Fred simply muttered gibberish while trying to scoop some of his own oatmeal into the bowl in front of him, but completely missed and practically plopped it onto the table instead. Eloise groaned, and started laughing slightly, waiting for her sister to explain their running joke.

“The bags.” Kat began, smirking at her own comedy, “Under your eyes-- are they designer label or knock-offs?” 

There was a chorus of “Ohhh” followed by some rolling eyes or small chuckles, but even the resident fill-in jokester couldn’t live up to the Weasley twin’s usual reactions. They were exhausted, and needed the evening to rest up and ready for the big game. Even those students who had no real interest in Quidditch, such as Hermione, had their sights set on obliterating Slytherin tomorrow. The other houses too, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff seemed fed up with the way the snakes had been acting, and were ready to cheer on the lions. There was a feeling of inter-house unity that contrasted the previous Gryffindor game, this time it was everyone but Slytherin against Slytherin.

Hermione was in the middle of a fight to get Harry to eat something to “bulk up” before the game, while Ron pestered her about Draco and his goons on the hunt for someone who kept hexing him in the halls.

“Ronald. They’re not going to think it’s you because you can’t even throw those kind of hexes.” Hermione spat at him, and his jaw dropped.

“Hey! I-- erm… whatever.”

That got Fred and George laughing, and George even reached across the table to ruffle his little brother’s hair. “Awh,” He whined in a sing-song voice, “Is Ickle-Ron offended because Hermione is right?”

Ron simply pushed his brother away, and they all went back to their respective conversations. Elle and Fred were deep in a whisper of giggles and words about the coming game, and there were a few eyes on them. Alicia and Angelina were elbowing one another while wiggling their eyebrows suggestively at one another, glaring at the scene in front of them.

Fred was talking to Eloise, and an important thing to note is the realization that Elle liked to talk. A lot. Sometimes she could get into so much of a ramble that she would sit down at the Great Hall, scoop food onto her plate, and then never take so much as a breath to eat it. Fred took notice of this, and while she was ranting about how she planned to knock Malfoy off his broom the coming day, he began serving her breakfast. Not just any breakfast, but exactly how she liked it. Oatmeal with cinnamon sugar on top and strawberries, along with scrambled eggs on a separate plate with sausage. He handed her her goblet of orange juice so that she would take a breath from speaking and realize that she needed to eat something. Kat noticed immediately, and rolled her eyes. Her breakfast was also there, but she groaned seeing as her sister had someone making hers for her. Kat plopped her head in her hand, and glanced over at the Slytherin table a few times, only to get no response of acknowledgement from Draco. 

“Oh shit-” Elle looked down and realized there was food in front of her, “Did the house elves learn what I like for breakfast?” Hermione groaned quietly at the mention of the enslaved chefs, but was ignored. Without another word, the exhausted and starving girl began shoveling the food into her mouth, and pulled out her Potions homework at the same time and started scribbling over the recipe they were supposed to correct for homework. 

Fred glanced at the food in front of her, back up at the overworked and crazed third year, and decided that rather than brag, make Eloise feel guilty, or use it for brownie points, he simply nodded and stated:

“I guess they did.” 

This caused Alicia and Angelina to ‘awhh’ at him, but the ginger waved them off dismissively. Even George gave him an elbow to the guts while snickering about how far his twin was taking the little crush he had developed. Elle was too busy trying to eat her food and do her homework at the same time to realize anything, but had she looked up even for a fleeting moment, she would’ve seen Fred Weasley staring at her in adoration, face filled with blush. 

~~~

Saturday morning was filled with pure and utter excitement with every person in school, except for those on the teams itself. The members of Slytherin were drafting their plays and plans, whether it meant playing dirty or not. The athletes of Gryffindor were as ready as ever for the game, all getting a decent night of sleep and finally ridding themselves of the deep eyebags that had grown thanks to Oliver’s extreme training. The cherry on-top to the captains plan was a relaxing and recharge day right before the game. Friday night was a required bedtime for the players, forcing them to get a restful sleep and be ready to give the pitch their all. 

Breakfast was littered with red and gold, including some students from other houses who were rooting for anyone but Slytherin. Dumbledore was making a very confusing speech on house unity and sportsmanship for the game, but no one was paying him much attention. He went on a tangent about another joke he had heard, and since McGonagall was out prepping the pitch with Madam Hooch, no one was stopping him.

Eloise, Fred, Oliver, George, Angelina, Alicia, and Katie were sitting side by side at the Gryffindor table in their quidditch sweaters ready for the game. On their way out of the common room that morning they were wished good luck by practically every single student. This was the most highly anticipated game of the year besides the final. 

Lee was hyping himself up and chatting to anyone who would listen, going on and on about how he knew Gryffindor was going to win, but he was determined to be a good and ‘fair’ announcer. As if he ever did that.

Ginny, Hermione, and Ron were busy trying to get Harry to eat something, since the boy was especially nervous after the events of the last game. He had his new Firebolt, and was more than excited to play. With two of their players, Harry and Elle, riding the nicest and fastest brooms on the market, the Lions were eager to see it in action. The weather on this Saturday morning was bright and much more encouraging than the Hufflepuff game. 

Eloise perked up slightly when her sister came and sat down next to her, and began rambling. 

“I swear, if those snakes try anything today I will end them. You guys deserve a win, and you’ve never been more prepared. I just know that Oliver’s hard work is going to pay off today. It just has to.” Even if it was fake, Kat continued to hype up her sister. The issue was, she almost secretly wanted Slytherin to win, just to piss off her sister and be able to have something go wrong for her. Everything Elle had planned was working. Quidditch, Fred, magic, but Kat was out of luck. So, on the contrary to her normal support of her sister, she was split. She wanted Eloise to do well and win, because she was her best friend, but she also wanted her to lose. It was wrong, but she couldn’t help it. 

“Sure Kat… Sounds great.” Elle mumbled, poking at her oatmeal harshly with her spoon. She hadn’t taken a bite in a while, so her sister grabbed her hand and brought the dazed athlete back to earth. “What? Oh- whoops.”

Eloise’s nerves made the group around them laugh, amused at the way her nerves festered, and while the entire hall could feel the anxiety radiating off of the team, they seemed equally excited for the match. Time finally arrived for the playing students to head to the changing tents to prepare for the match, and Elle Thompson was one of the last to leave. The girl was focused in a tunnel-vision type of sight, with the mindset that if she disregarded everything around her, she could get through the game without freaking out. 

Suddenly, there was a hand on her shoulder, and she whipped her head around to look who it belonged to. There, standing awkwardly, was Fred Weasley, with his normally mischievous eyes that lacked seriousness looking warm and caring at the terrified girl. 

“Ready to go?” His voice was soft. 

Stammering, Eloise glanced around and finally noticed that the entire team had already left the hall. “Yeah- uh… Let’s go.”

The two walked out side by side, tension growing between them as they never really discussed what had happened- or almost happened- on her birthday. Eloise’s nerves seemed to ease the more she was with him, a comfort and solace that was natural. She was at peace when she was in his presence. 

Her sister had left with their other friends towards the stands, covered head-to-toe in Gryffindor colors and face paint to cheer on her sister. Regardless of events with other houses, specifically the Slytherin pureblood prince, Kat’s loyalty lied with her best friend. There was nothing that was going to stop her today from being her twin’s biggest fan. 

Once in their seats, Kat sat on her hands waiting for a glimpse of her sister stepping out onto the field. After her single moment of doubt at the first quidditch practice, Eloise had gained much more confidence to play. Observers doubted her because of her physical expression of extreme nerves before she was on the field, but as soon as she swung her legs over the broom it was all gone with the wind. She was pulled into a feeling of confidence and pride, with one goal in mind. Win. 

“Do you think the dementors will come to the field again?” Ron questioned, glancing around at the pitch for the cloaked figures.

“Not a chance. Dumbledore made it clear that it was a horrible incident, but he also assured that it will never happen again.” Hermione confidently stated, but even Kat noticed that she was looking around nervously, just less obviously than Ron. 

Kat’s only anxiety was looking at the walkway where the team was set to come out to the field, and while she realized they had time, she was ready to make a scene when Eloise stepped out. 

Inside the changing rooms, Oliver was already giving his lecture while the team got ready for the game. Eloise was burying her head inside of her equipment bag, pretending to look for her gloves that were already set out. She was full of tension, but her walk down to the pitch with Fred eased some of it. 

“You lookin for these?” 

“Huh?” Elle yanked her head out of her bag, and saw Fred standing behind her with her gloves in hand. “Oh- yeah.” She chuckled softly, and took them from his hand. “You ready?”

Fred shrugged his shoulders with confidence. “I’m always ready.”

George butted in, “To hit Malfoy with a bludger? We were born to do this.”

This got Eloise to laugh, and her shoulders relaxed. The twins never cease to make her ready for a game and forget all her inhibitions. She reached into her bag and threw on her quidditch robes, and moved towards the benches with her other chaser teammates.

“So- Elle! Big game. Everyone’s so excited to see you play against the snakes.” Angelina snickered, joined by Alicia and Katie Bell. The four of them had been through grueling practices together, and were setting up to be the strongest line of chasers for the Gryffindor team since James Potter played. Katie had gotten over her bitterness towards the new girl, and was more excited than ever to be a backup chaser. 

“You’re gonna kill it out there, just like last time.” Alicia nudged her side, and they continued laughing together, both out of buzzing excitement and nerves. 

“My goals are to win, and to knock Malfoy off at least once.” 

Unluckily, Oliver heard this comment. “No. I do not condone playing like them.” He shook a finger at Eloise, along with his head in disagreement. The captain then turned towards the team, and got their attention. “Everyone listen up. Today is a big game, and I have no doubt that we’re ready. But no matter what, no matter how dirty they play, we are the bigger people in this game. We play by the rules, we win by the rules. You do anything that makes me think you’d fit in on their team, I pull you from the field.” Wide eyes littered the changing room, and even the Weasley twins realized how serious he was. There were small nods of understanding from the team, and they went back to getting ready. 

Eloise wandered back over to her bag, and took hold of her broom to polish it a bit before the game. With a rag in hand and a little bottle of polish on the bench next to her, she began going through her routine. Back in Seattle, she was on the school’s girls field hockey team, and was the first girl to play on their ice hockey team. She was notorious for her different superstitions, and polishing her broom the same way before every time she played had become a new one at Hogwarts. 

Fred wandered over since he was already prepped for the game, not a fan of superstitions like Eloise, and plopped down next to her. 

“Still getting ready?” He questioned, looking at the girl who was meticulously polishing her broom. 

“Of course. I have to do everything in order.” Eloise smiled up at him.

“What happens if you don’t?” 

“Dunno. But I do not want to find out.”

Fred chuckled, and looked around at the rest of the team, before turning towards Elle. “I’m excited to see you play again today. You were really impressive during the Puff game.” 

She blushed at his comment, and went back to focusing on her broom so he didn’t notice. “Thanks. It means a lot…” There was a hesitation in her voice, and then she tilted her head towards him before continuing. “Fred…” She lowered her voice slightly. “About the night of my birthday- I know I was a little drunk but I-” 

Her sentence was interrupted by the muffled sounds of Lee Jordan, announcing the entrance of the Slytherin team to the pitch. That meant they were up next. Everyone grabbed their equipment, and lined up in the tent. It was Oliver and Harry side-by-side, then Angelina and Alicia, then Eloise and Fred, George and Katie. There were a few collective heavy breaths of anticipation by the athletes, and everyone was ready. This was it. 

Right before Lee began to announce the team, George tapped Elle on the shoulder. “Oi- Thompson… Fancy giving my boy Freddie here a good luck kiss? I bet that would get him going.” George winked at his brother, whose face was flushed red now. He glanced towards Eloise, expecting a similar look on her face, but found one completely different. 

She was smirking. And a dangerous one at that. Elle sent a look towards George, as the first two players were announced to the field and said confidently, “Y’know what? How’s this: We’ll make a bet. If you manage to make sure not a single bludger hits me during this game, you can get a one at the end.” 

With that, Lee shouted out: Next up, we have the star chaser of Gryffindor, new to the team, Eloise Thompson!” She threw her leg over the broom in her hand, winked at Fred, and kicked off into the sky as she was met with cheers of encouragement from the stands. 

“Bloody hell. That was-” George began.

“Amazing.” Fred finished, eyes wide with anticipation. He received an encouraging pat on the back from his brother, who seemed just as shocked by the wave of confidence and cockiness expressed by the chaser. 

Lee began introducing Fred and George, and as they flew out onto the field both twins caught Elle’s eye, which radiated her sudden wave of courage. She was living in the spotlight for once, spinning around on her broom and waving to the stands flooded with their colors. Her hair pulled back into a ponytail as usual, glowing confidence and excitement. Lee Jordan was having the time of his life as usual, being a ‘fair’ judge who loved commenting on how good Gryffindor was.

“We have a very exciting game for you all today, and leading the charge is the newly anticipated goal streak by Eloise Thompson! Number 5 on the field, a killer player in her prime. Eager to see how the slippery snakes of Slytherin fare against-- OW!” McGonagall whacked him behind the head in one move, and Lee readjusted himself. “Sorry Professor- Anyways, Madam Hooch is down on the field, with Flint versus Thompson for the faceoff. She reaches out to shake hands- only to be ignored! Poor sportsmanship by the Slytherin captain already.” 

The crowd of red and gold ‘Booed’ the opposing team, but not a single Slytherin flinched. 

Lee continued, his voice booming throughout the stadium. “And the Quaffle is released! Let the game begin!” The pitch was filled with cheers as Elle and Marcus dove for the ball, but she beat him to it. “And Thompson wins the toss! She passes it quickly to Johnson, who sends it to Spinnet, and back to Thompson for a goal!” 

The stands went wild with cheers for the goal, which soared right past Bletchly.

“The quaffle is now in the hands of Flint, who passes it to Pucey, but- OH! Intercepted by Thompson-- was that a wink from Pucey? Looks like there’s a bludger headed right towards him now, off the bat of Fred Weasley. Those twins are some of the most aggressive beaters this school has ever seen.”

Pucey winked at Eloise as she soared past him and nicked the quaffle, and Fred took notice. There was a bludger coming at him, so he hit it right towards the cocky Slytherin. Elle tossed the ball to Alicia, then to Angelina, who threw it up right as George hit it with his bat towards the goal.

“AND SCORE AGAIN FOR GRYFFINDOR!” Lee’s voice boomed over the stadium, and he got the crowd to cheer louder than ever. “That sets the score at 20-0 for Gryffindor in the lead, as they should b-- OW! Sorry Professor.” He received another smack on the back of his head for announcing bias, but he was used to it. “The ball gets tossed back to Captain Flint from their keeper, and look at him go. Two missed shots from the Weasley beaters, something you don’t see every day. And he shoots- DEFLECTED by Keeper and Captain of the Gryffindor Lions, Oliver Wood!”

The crowd went crazy for their Captain, and Elle gave him a high-five as she soared past. The grin on her face was worth thousands of galleons. Fred and George nudged into each other on their brooms, both wearing similar smiles. 

Lee continued his announcements. “The ball up, from Wood to Spinnet, and sent across the field to Johnson! Johnson weaves her way through the battlefield of snakes, and manages a throw to Thompson, catches it with ease and- a fake out on Bletchley! She scores! Another 10 points to Gryffindor!” 

Elle flew a quick lap around the pitch, one arm in the air cheering for her team. She passed by Fred and shot a wink his way, filled with the rush of adrenaline scoring again for her team. Kat was screaming loudest out of everyone around her with her hands waving in the air, shouting: “That’s my sister!” Even Hermione was up on her feet, cheering and whooping for her friends. Ron was cheering for his brothers, and watching Harry hover above the action, waiting for a glimpse of the snitch. 

Lee’s announcements went on and on, getting more biased as the game continued. “Ladies and Gentlemen! That’s another goal by Thompson, setting our score at 90-10 with Gryffindor in the lead. Both the offensive and the defensive line for the Lions seem almost unbeatable here today! And would you look at that! Another great save by Fred Weasley, diving in front of a bludger headed straight for their star chaser, Eloise Thompson, who goes by Elle to her friends- OUCH-- Whoops.” His tangent earned himself another hit behind the head, before continuing. “Fred Weasley has been on a roll today, hitting more bludgers away than ever before! Look out- I think Potter’s spotted the Snitch!”

Harry dove from his spot high above the field, twisting and turning through different players and dodging bludgers with ease. Draco caught on to him, and spotted the golden ball himself, and began following as fast as his broom could take him. The two were neck-and-neck fighting to gain speed and catch up to the snitch, which was barrelling low to the ground. Angelina had been replaced by Katie at one point because Flint had purposely knocked into her, sending her off her broom. The team was bursting at the seams to play dirty, with Eloise glaring at Malfoy specifically every possible moment, but they stayed true to their captains directions. 

“Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, both third-year seekers. They are pushing their brooms to the limit, Malfoy on a Nimbus 2001, and Potter riding the brand-new, top of the line Firebolt, matched only to the same broom ridden by star chaser, Eloise Thompson. The boys are fighting to catch up with the snitch, but OH! Back to the game, it seems that Bell has a breakaway- here comes Goyle to cut her off but she passes to Thompson and she SCORES! Another goal for Gryffindor, putting them at 100 to Slytherins measly- OW- I meant, to Slytherins 10.”

Harry and Draco were following the snitch as fast as they could, until finally Harry was able to reach out just enough and grab it. 

“POTTER’S GOT THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS!” Lee shouted, jumping up and down with the mic in hand, similarly to the rest of the stands full of red and gold. 

Eloise whooped and hollered for the team, proud of herself for scoring 50 points for the team, or having an assist in most of the others. She was proving to be a real asset. Suddenly, there was a whoosh of wind, and Eloise looked up. A stray bludger was hurtling towards her, sent right from Bole’s bat. But the game was over? Why hadn’t it stopped? 

Before she even had a chance to process the ball moving extremely fast at her, Elle saw a flash of red, gold, and ginger hair throw itself in front of the ball, and whacked it away at the last possible second. 

Fred turned around at her with the biggest grin on his face, and bowed slightly with a sarcastic shrug of his shoulders. “It was nothing milady. Don’t even think of thanking me.” Before Eloise was able to react, he lowered himself down to the ground where the entirety of Gryffindor house had flooded the field, shouting and chanting for the team. Eloise followed suit, flying down to the ground and flushed with adrenaline. 

She was overwhelmed with congratulations and encouraging pats on the back, but Eloise Thompson only had one thing on her mind. Whether it was the adrenaline coursing through her veins like blood, or the confidence from her amazing performance, she was set on finding Fred.

There he was. Standing next to his brother, smiling wide and high-fiving all his friends, and laughing at Lee, who was rubbing the back of his head with a wince. 

“Fred.” She asserted, and they locked eyes for what felt like an eternity, even though it was mere seconds, but neither one of them wanted to find the key. She dropped her broom on the ground thoughtlessly, and didn’t break their locked eyes connection once. 

“I- Elle you-” He began, but was cut off.

The third-year hurtled toward him with the same speed as the bludgers he normally hit during a game. As if they were the only two people in the room, Eloise Thompson leapt into his arms and pulled him close, their lips meeting as though they were two magnets, finally coming together and uniting the attraction that had always been there. There were loud shouts, cheers, and wolf-whistles from the crowd, but the two athletes didn’t hear a thing. He was lifting her up to his height, and she had moved her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. Their lips stayed locked for as long as possible, neither one wanting to be the first to pull away. Fred’s mind was buzzing with a drunken passion, fighting to kiss her back and show how much this meant to him. Her bright red quidditch robes clung to her body as he held her tight, arms wrapped around her small figure, rejecting any possibility of letting her go. The wolf-whistles and cheers didn’t cease, and neither did their kiss. It could have been an hour or a minute, and neither Elle nor Fred cared one bit. She pushed back against him, grasping one hand into his fiery red hair for traction as they stayed connected, linked physically just as strong as they were emotionally. This was just the beginning for the two, and one they had been waiting for. A month and a half was already too long for them to wait, unsure of the other’s emotions, pushing back and repressing their own. Eloise’s hand gripped his hair tighter, and the arms around her waist did the same. They fit together like a puzzle, and wanted their pieces to be as close and flush to one another as physically possible.

A voice, sounding like Lee Jordan shouted, “Get a room!”, as loud cackles and bursts of laughter were heard from the onlookers, and at the same time, they pulled away ever so-slightly, slowly, to see a mirror expression staring back at them. Both Eloise and Fred were smiling wide, pressing their foreheads together, staying connected as they lavished in the pure bliss of the moment, both waiting and hoping for it since their first interaction. 

A sharp voice suddenly entered the scene, interrupting the picturesque moment happening between Elle and Fred. 

“I’m not surprised. Are you surprised Pucey?”

Marcus Flint sauntering into the celebratory circle of red and gold, still sweating and sneering from his embarrassing loss. The previously deafening shouts of the Gryffindors had gone silent, all anticipating the reactions of the victorious Lions. Fred put Eloise down, and she stepped in front of him, full of anger and resentment. She was not going to let them ruin her moment.

Adrian Pucey followed behind him, along with Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Bole. 

“Not surprised at all. Figured she was just on the team to sleep around- I guess being a whore runs in the family.” 

All the Slytherin boys except for Draco laughed loudly at his comment. With that comment, he glared at Kat, who had been wrapped up in the cheers and celebrations. Both Thompson girls were reminded of his unwanted advances from a few weeks prior, but that was the least of their worries presently.

The entire Gryffindor team’s jaws collectively hit the floor, but were picked back up when Fred, George, and Oliver threw themselves at the two boys. Fred went straight for Adrian, sending a good right hook his way before pinning him to the ground. Oliver, strangely shouted something like, “She’s one of my best players!” George and Fred were too busy decking the shit out of the two athletes, who didn’t stand a chance against the 6 foot 3 beaters. They didn’t have a chance to grab their wands, since the Weasley twins decided to go muggle-style for this brawl. 

Both Pucey and Flint were limp on the ground once the twins finally stood up. Fred turned around, and gasped at the sight of Eloise, with tears streaming down her face, and arms crossed around herself meekly. All the adrenaline and confidence rushed out of her body as soon as Adrian opened his mouth. Fred ran towards her, and wrapped his lanky arms around her as she sobbed into his chest. He went straight into attack mode that he completely forgot about Eloise, and the horrible things said about her. Fred was occupied comforting Elle, when Kat stepped out of the crowd and towards the two Slytherins on the ground. She walked closer to them, and glanced up towards the rest of them. Draco, Crabbe, Goyle and Bole were staring at the group of Gryffindors, but Draco’s eyes were locked with Kat. He was trying to communicate a hundred different things to her at once, but she wasn’t hearing a word. There was only anger and rage coursing through her body.

She glanced down at the two boys, and her eyes landed on Pucey. He picked his head up just a bit, and let out a breathy laugh. “Come to see if my offer still stands? Not surprised, whor--” 

Kat took one sharp intake of air as he began to insult her again, picked up her right foot, and without a second thought plunged it right into Adrian’s crotch. She stomped on him with such force that she was almost certain he was never going to carry on the Pucey’s bloodline. He folded into himself, wringing and groaning in pain, and Kat spun on her heels to leave. Right as she was about to head off the pitch, she turned around, looked down at Pucey and made direct eye contact with him, but then glared up at Draco. She locked eyes with him, and without losing it, she spat at the ground where he stood. Her eyes were full of flames of anger, spite, and outrage. 

Draco let out a breath, as if he had been holding it for an hour. He grabbed the robes of Adrian and Marcus, and began dragging them towards the castle. Professor McGonagall arrived, alongside Snape finally, and the two began handing out detentions with ease. Eloise, tear stained face and all, began explaining what happened to the two heads of house. McGonagall gave Fred, George, and Oliver a weeks detention, and Snape was to do the same when the boys were done in the Hospital wing. 

Once finished, Fred slung his arm around Eloise’s shoulder and pulled her close, walking side by side towards the castle. So much had happened since their kiss, and neither one wanted to talk about it. Not yet. 

Kat had stormed off after curb-stomping Adrian, and had already returned to the tower to help Hermione and Ron set up for the after-party. Everyone in their house wanted to pretend like the ending events of the day hadn’t happened, and what better way to do that than Fred and George’s secret recipe punch? With extra firewhiskey this time. They all needed it, and even Oliver didn’t disagree. It was time to truly forget their inhibitions, and lose themselves in music and each other.


End file.
